Two outstanding nurse educators and mentors at HHC, Cecil Almendra of Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Katrina DeVinci of Queens Hospital, recently received scholarships for $12,500 each from the Charles Spear Charitable Trust Foundation, to join the very exclusive group of nurses in the U.S. who earn a PhD degree in nursing.

Only about 1% of all registered nurses in the US have doctoral degrees. Almendra and DeVinci will be among 10 RNs at HHC who have doctoral degrees; another 10 nurses are actively pursuing doctorates while working at HHC facilities.

Cecil Almendra, who has worked at Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital for 23 years, is in the Doctoral Nursing Program at Rutgers University, which has a focus in administration, job design and health of long term care nurses. Almendra is a graduate of HHC Nursing Leadership Academy and has developed education programs for staff and patients, as well as spearheading Coler-Goldwater's mentorship program for nurses.

Katrina DeVinci has been at Queens Hospital since 2001 and is earning a PhD in Education from Capella University. At Queens she has coordinated clinical placements for students from affiliated universities and has started the nurse practitioner support group at Queens Hospital, which attracts nurse practitioners from across Queens and Brooklyn.

Both Almendra and DeVinci are continuing work at their respective facilities while pursuing their studies on a part-time basis.

February 2009