Carol Porter, DNP, RN sees her role at Mount Sinai as “conveying the nurse’s perspective to the Medical Center, and vice versa.” As Mount Sinai’s Chief Nursing Officer – and recently appointed Associate Dean of Nursing Research and Education – she has been a strong advocate for the importance of nurses in both medical research and clinical practice.

In this regard, one of her proudest achievements has been helping to establish Mount Sinai’s Center for Nursing Research and Education (CNRE) and serving as the CNRE’s first Director since its official launch in May 2010. An ambitious collaboration between the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Department of Nursing, the CNRE seeks to advance “bench to bedside” research – bringing the experience and insights of clinical nurses into medical research, while integrating the results of that research into both nursing education and patient care.

Ms. Porter and the CNRE are also working with Mount Sinai’s new Global Health program, headed by Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, to share ideas in nursing research, education and practice with other medical institutions around the world. At the recent annual Global Nursing Leadership Institute (GNLI) in Geneva, Switzerland, Ms. Porter, who was in attendance, says she was impressed “to hear how Mount Sinai nurses are held in high regard globally.”

Ms. Porter notes that a recent report, “The Future of Nursing,” from the Institute of Medicine (the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences), gives credence to the CNRE’s mission.

“The report recommends that nurses should be full partners with physicians and other health professionals in redesigning health care in the US,” she says. “We’re positioned very well for this – because the Center is already partnering with physicians at Mount Sinai.”

– Philip Berroll

Originally published in Mount Sinai Science & Medicine magazine, 2011.

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