Nurse earns ‘Emmy Award for nursing’
Yale New Haven nurse honored with national award
NORTH HAVEN — Michele Santoro, a registered nurse at the Yale New Haven Hospital Heart and Vascular Center in North Haven, sees herself as just like any other nurse.
But 11,500 people who cheered Santoro when she was honored with a Magnet Nurse of the Year Award at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia see her as much more.
They saw her as an inspiration, a role model, and a hero who has saved thousands of lives, including many people she will never meet.
Santoro, 56, who lives in Durham, identified a dangerous issue that disconnected thousands of cardiac patients worldwide from an external monitoring device platform after a vendor performed a software update. She got them all reconnected, an act of smart, compassionate nursing that reached far beyond Connecticut and likely saved countless people’s lives.
Exactly how many lives were saved? “I have no idea,” Santoro said, “but it was throughout the country.”
She also developed a cardiac monitoring database that found potentially life-threatening arrhythmia in 47 percent of enrolled patients. In 45 percent of those patients, medical and surgical treatments were needed.
But “you don’t look at the numbers,” she said. “You just do things.”
Santoro additionally identified a gap in the follow-up for patients with remote cardiac monitoring devices, then collaborated with others on her interprofessional team, as well as vendors, to implement a new, multi-faceted monitoring, scheduling and tracking system.
“I didn’t even think anything of it,” she said. “It’s just what we do every day.”
As if those efforts weren’t enough, she also pioneered a new process to prepare patients’
skin for surgical procedures.
“I see patients every day who have these skin tears,” Santoro said. So she thought about it for a while and devised a new way to prepare their skin, and “I’ve never had another patient with a skin tear since we changed it.”
Santoro currently is working with two other nurses on another “nurse-driven” innovation: an implantable loop recorder that doctors can put inside a patient’s chest to record what their heart is doing over time.
The magnitude of the honor continues to resonate. “I’m still so blown away from it,” Santoro said, calling the honor “amazing for Yale,” as well as for her.
“This is like the Emmy Award for nursing,” she said.
“I was humbled,” Santoro said of the award, which she received “for exemplary professional practice” at the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s National Magnet Conference on Oct. 14. “I mean, we all work so hard.”
That night, she spoke to nurses from 22 countries, telling them, among other things, that she was “grateful for the opportunity to do what I love.” She was honored for innovations that have improved outcomes for cardiac patients around the world.
What was it like to speak to 11,500 people, about 11,000 of
whom were nurses?
“I was nervous at first,” Santoro said. “But then I thought, ‘You’re their voice,’ ” and she let fly.
“It was such an empowering moment,” she said. “... I felt this vibe of empowerment from all the nurses in this room.”
Since then, she’s received support and accolades from her colleagues at Yale New Haven, where earlier in the year she had been honored as Yale New Haven’s Magnet Nurse of the Year.
“They want to do a billboard,” Santoro said, suppressing a laugh. “I don’t even do Facebook or Instagram. I am like under the radar!”
That may be the case, but she’s got the attention of Yale New Haven Hospitals top nurse.
“We are so proud of Michele earning this incredibly prestigious and well-deserved award,” said Ena Williams, Yale New Haven’s senior vice president and chief nursing officer.
“Her unwavering commitment to patients has inspired her to conduct research and pioneer changes in nursing practice that are transforming patient care at Yale New Haven Hospital and beyond,” Williams said.
“Michele’s award demonstrates the organization’s commitment to maintaining a professional practice environment that
fosters nurse-led improvements, based in evidence, that support the delivery of high quality, individualized care for our patients,” she said.
“Michele’s passion for her specialty and ability to improve patient outcomes demonstrates the influence that nurses at YNHH can have on a local, national, and international level,” Williams said.
Danielle Huseman-Maratea, the magnet integration manager within the Office of Nursing Excellence for Yale-New Haven Hospital, also is a fan.
“I think Michele definitely demonstrates the quality of nurses we have here at Yale New Haven. I think her impact definitely spans beyond” just her workplace, Huseman-Maratea said.
“But I think for her it’s just another day at work,” HusemanMaratea added. That’s because Santoro comes into work every day thinking, “What can I do to make sure these patients get the most exceptional care,” Huseman-Maratea said.
Huseman-Maratea was surprised — but not entirely surprised — when Santoro, who was recommended for the local award by Annette D’Agostino, her direct manager at the North Haven site, won the national award.
“Honestly, we knew she was a strong candidate. But we’ve never had anyone win this award at the national level,” she said. “It’s such a level of excellence.
“When we did hear the news, we were so thrilled — and had to keep it a secret for, like, 11 or 12 weeks,” she said. “I think the award speaks to Michele’s work, her passion, her education . ... Michele has worked for the organization for a long time and has had leaders who supported her.”
Santoro is married to Louis Santoro and has two daughters, one of whom, Cassandra Eno, 27, works as an oncology nurse at Yale New Haven’s Smilow Cancer Hospital. Her youngest daughter, Isabella Santoro, is working toward a master’s degree in sports management at Southern Connecticut State University.
“I’m very blessed to have my family,” Santoro said.
It was Santoro’s family that spurred her to go into nursing in the first place. She told attendees at the conference about her grandmother’s struggle with “countless” strokes and how it fueled her passion to help others.
Then her father — still alive — had a heart attack in the middle of the night while Santoro was in nursing school. From then on, “the heart and vascular specialty chose me,” she said.
The award, coming as nurses are in short supply, has given some of Santoro’s colleagues hope that it will help attract other dedicated nurses with a passion for helping people, both to the profession and to Yale New Haven. Registered nurses are by far the number one unfilled job both in Greater New Haven and the state, according to a report by REX Development, aka the South Central CT Regional Economic Development Corporation.
As of Feb. 14, there were 17,000 open jobs in greater New Haven, of which 1,256 were registered nurse jobs, said Ginny Kozlowski, executive director of REX Development. The state as a whole had a total of 95,000 open jobs, of which 5,950 were RNs.