Saratoga Hospital’s Ceccucci named Nurse Practitioner of the Year
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Family nurse practitioner Janice Ceccucci, DNP, typically sees patients at their most vulnerable, in the hours after a sexual assault or a report of ongoing sexual abuse.
In the nearly 15 years since she began providing sexual assault forensic exams, Ceccucci’s skill and sensitivity — and her determination to improve these services for patients of all ages — have benefited children, adolescents and adults far beyond the Capital Region.
These contributions, and her leadership in educating and mentoring nurse practitioners and physician assistants, earned Ceccucci recognition as New York state’s 2019 Nurse Practitioner of the Year.
The Nurse Practitioner Association of New York State presented the award last month during its annual conference in Verona, N.Y. Ceccucci was nominated by family nurse practitioner Elizabeth Spooner Dunn, a colleague at Saratoga Hospital.
“Janice takes nursing to the next level,” Dunn said in a press release. “Her passion for the profession, dedication to her patients and commitment to excellence make her not just a trusted colleague but an example and mentor to all.”
At Saratoga Hospital, Ceccucci
sees patients in the Alfred Z. Solomon Emergency Center and in urgent care centers on the hospital’s campuses in Wilton and Malta. She helped establish and serves as co-director of the hospital’s APP Fellowship Program, which mentors new nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Ceccucci provides significant services outside the hospital setting. She is on call at home, 36 hours a month, providing teleconsultation to help hospitals in remote areas ensure that sexual assault victims have 24/7 access to sexual assault nurse examiners. At child advocacy centers, she conducts sexual assault ex
ams for pediatric patients— a service that Ceccucci and a colleague introduced in 2011 to better serve sexually abused children.
“They were sending pediatric patients to us in emergency departments because that was the only place these exams were available,” she said in the release. “The standard of care is to conduct them in childcentered environments.”
Ceccucci also is an assistant professor of nursing for SUNY Polytechnic in Utica and helped pilot a hybrid program that delivers livestreaming and oncampus classes.
“Janice exemplifies the compassion, expertise and leadership of today’s nurses,” said Mary Jo LaPosta, PhD, RN, senior vice president of patient care and organizational excellence and chief nursing officer at Saratoga Hospital, in the release. “She is constantly drawing on her education and experience to provide the best possible care for patients and to support tomorrow’s nurses.
“Our hospital and our community are extremely fortunate to have a nurse of her caliber and compassion on our team.”
Ceccucci earned a master’s degree in nursing from the State University of New York Institute of Technology in Utica, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. Her doctoral project, “Evaluating Nurse Practitioners’ Perceived Knowledge, Competence and Comfort Level in Caring for the Sexually Abused Child,” was published in the Journal of Forensic Nursing.
She holds multiple certifications and is a frequent presenter at regional and national conferences. Ceccucci has won several awards—in addition to Nurse Practitioner of the Year—including the Joan Unger Memorial Award from the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Nursing Excellence Award, from the Omicron at-Large Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, for her work with a vulnerable population.