Nenita Premian, RN, BSN
Nenita Premian, RN, BSN
Assistant Director of Nursing
NYC Health + Hospitals/Sea View
When the leadership of NYC Health + Hospitals/Sea View recognized a need to reduce the number of acute care transfers from the nursing and rehabilitation facility, they wisely tapped Nenita Premian to spearhead an initiative to adopt best practices targeting this important quality-of-care indicator.
Premian, who was educated and began her career in the Philippines, is a veteran of 36 years at Sea View. She became assistant director of nursing in 2005 and is now responsible for three units comprising 118 residents and 60 staff. A strong proponent of interdisciplinary practice, she responded to her task by developing and implementing protocols for reducing infections, embedding them in daily practice throughout the facility. She coupled them with changes that improved both verbal and electronic communications. The result was a reduction in hospitalizations to below the state and national averages. For Premian, it was all in service of two of her guiding principles as a nurse: “I always strive to show residents that I care for them. They have entrusted me with their lives and needs. There is always room for improvement. You need to reassess and re-evaluate.”
As someone who has worked her entire career in a facility that provides long-term skilled nursing, Premian also knows that the core obligation to residents is doing whatever possible to ease their decline. “For me, it is a great responsibility and an honor,” she says. “When I visit families of residents who have passed and they tell me how appreciative they are for the care that their loved ones received, that is a great honor.”