{"id":214035,"date":"2024-05-05T16:16:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T20:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=214035"},"modified":"2024-05-08T16:29:57","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T20:29:57","slug":"how-we-can-get-ready-for-the-next-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/05\/how-we-can-get-ready-for-the-next-patient\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018How We Can Get Ready for the Next Patient\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflecting on the 43 years since she became a registered nurse, Debra Abromaitis says nursing was a natural fit for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy helping people be the best they can be,\u201d she says. \u201cDoing everything I can to help patients get to their highest level of wellness and helping families understand and support their loved ones made nursing a simple choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

That philosophy has guided her up through the ranks at UConn Health, and continues to guide her today as an assistant vice president in its Office of Accreditation and Regulatory Affairs, where she\u2019s spent the last five years.<\/p>\n

Abromaitis\u2019 time as a UConn nurse goes back to when she worked per diem, primarily in the medical surgical unit, starting in 1991. But her connection to UConn goes back more than a decade earlier, when she was an undergraduate student in Storrs, studying for the nursing degree she\u2019d get in 1981.<\/p>\n

\n

We have so many amazing nurses at UConn who do amazing work and deserve to be honored. — Debra Abromaitis<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/span><\/p>\n

After some time away from UConn in the late 90s that included living overseas while volunteering at the American Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, she returned to UConn Health, first as a nursing supervisor UConn John Dempsey Hospital (2001 to 2007), then as a staffing and payroll manager (2007 to 2013), director of patient support services (2013-2018), and compliance officer (2018-2019), before joining her current office, which helps prepare accreditations and certifications.<\/p>\n

\"Debra
Debra Abromaitis is an assistant vice president of accreditation in UConn Health’s Office of Accreditation and Regulatory Affairs. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI educate, guide, advise, support and audit areas to ensure everyone understands the health care regulations, and that we are following the rules to ensure we are all doing the right thing, and I am the first contact when regulatory bodies come for surveys and investigations,\u201d Abromaitis says. \u201cI try to think of how we can improve care to make it better for all. I don\u2019t think of how we can get ready for a survey, I think of how we can get ready for the next patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s known for that last statement. She\u2019s also known informally as \u201cThe Regulator,\u201d in that she equips UConn Health\u2019s clinical staff with resources to keep current on all regulatory matters and to refer to for timely guidance.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeb has made a significant impact on patient care at the bedside and beyond,\u201d according to one of her several nominations for a 2024 Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing. \u201cRegardless of her role, her focus has always been to put patients first, and keep them safe. Many of you may carry around the Pocket Guide and not know where this came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pocket Guide is one of the tools the Office of Accreditation and Regulatory Affairs created under Abromaitis\u2019 leadership, and is lauded as crucial reference.<\/p>\n

Her nominators also recognize Abromaitis for providing emergency guide brochures and a safe evacuation toolbox for each UConn John Dempsey Hospital unit, and backing it up with training and rounding.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has left an impact not just on procedure, but also on the people she has mentored and guided,\u201d says another of her nominators. \u201cWhen faced with a complicated dilemma, we often take a step back and ponder, \u2018What would she do in this situation?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Caryl Ryan, chief nursing officer and the UConn John Dempsey Hospital chief operating officer and vice president for quality and patient care services, has been at UConn Health since before Abromaitis first arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeb Abromaitis is an outstanding nurse and clinical leader,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cDeb really represents the qualities of Florence Nightingale, witnessed by her compassion and dedication to our patients along with her extraordinary focus within patient safety and quality as recognized by her exemplary leadership within our Department of Regulatory and Accreditation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colleagues nominated more than 30 UConn Health registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nurse anesthetists for 2024 Nightingale Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so very proud of all of the nominees and the Nightingale award winners,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cI thank all of our Nightingales for their dedication to clinical excellence and the patients we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abromaitis says she wasn\u2019t expecting this honor, and Ryan surprised her by calling her into the CNO\u2019s office, where Abromaitis\u2019 staff already was in place to hear the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so honored and humbled,\u201d Abromaitis says. \u201cWe have so many amazing nurses at UConn who do amazing work and deserve to be honored. Florence Nightingale was so hard working, devoted to serving others, she transformed nursing into a respectable profession. To be recognized by those I have worked with, those I have hired, those I have managed for an award in Florence Nightingale\u2019s name\u2026 Words cannot express what that means to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nightingale Award recognizes UConn Health\u2019s Debra Abromaitis for her legacy of service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":214034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2429,1877,2388,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-214035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-scholarships","category-nur","category-healthcare-workforce","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 08:29:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214035"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214043,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214035\/revisions\/214043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/214034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214035"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=214035"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=214035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}