Leading with Care: Celebrating Hebrew SeniorLife’s Nurse and Nursing Assistant of the Year

Celebrating our amazing nurses is one of our favorite traditions! Each year, Hebrew SeniorLife hosts an awards ceremony that spotlights the incredible dedication and care our nursing staff bring to their work every day.

Among the highest honors given at this event are the Nurse of the Year and Nursing Assistant of the Year awards. This year’s winners, Nurse of the Year Nadejda Iurii, RN, and Nursing Assistant of the Year Mireille Michaud, each exemplify what it means to go above and beyond for their patients, providing compassionate, person-centered care day after day. Let’s get to know them a little better. 

Meet Nadejda Iurii: Nurse of the Year

To Nadejda, hearing her name announced as Hebrew SeniorLife’s 2024 Nurse of the Year felt like winning an Oscar. “Winning the Nurse of the Year award was an incredibly humbling and emotional experience. In that moment, I felt a profound sense of gratitude and pride, not just for myself, but for my entire team. The award signifies recognition of the hard work and dedication I put into my profession, and it motivates me to continue striving for excellence in patient care,” she says.  

Nadejda was inspired to pursue a nursing career after witnessing the impact nurses had during her father’s battle with cancer.

“My inspiration to become a nurse was my father. He suffered from cancer, went through many surgeries, chemotherapy treatment, hospitalization, and was finally put into hospice care. Watching how the doctors and nurses helped my father with managing his symptoms and trying to improve his quality of life made me realize the significant impact a nurse can have on someone’s life. I witnessed their compassion and dedication to my father. It left a profound impression on me,” she explains.

She joined Hebrew SeniorLife as a patient care associate in 2006. It was the second job she held after immigrating to the United States from Moldova, where she had attended nursing school and gained multiple years of hands-on experience in the field. After receiving her nursing license in Massachusetts, she moved into a role as a registered nurse. She has also held roles as a nurse manager and a clinical research nurse at Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research. Today, she is a charge nurse at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston.

As a charge nurse, her daily responsibilities include overseeing the floor, ensuring the nursing functions within her department run smoothly and efficiently, managing staff, coaching and teaching, advocating for staff, family, and patients, and keeping a watchful eye on process improvement.

One experience that has stood out to Nadejda is the opportunity to be part of the multidisciplinary team that implemented a new electronic health record system at Hebrew SeniorLife. “This experience was incredibly enriching, as it allowed me to contribute significant technological advancement in our health care delivery by being involved in this project. I collaborated with a diverse group of professionals, including IT specialists, administration, and the medical team. This collaboration not only broadened my understanding of health care informatics but also my skills in project management and teamwork,” she says.

As a preceptor, she enjoys teaching the next generation of nurses. “I have the privilege of helping new nurses transition into their roles, sharing my knowledge and experience, and fostering their professional growth. This responsibility not only strengthens our team but also enriches my own practice by allowing me to stay current with the best practices and new developments in nursing,” Nadejda adds.

But the greatest reward of nursing for Nadejda is the impact she gets to make on her patients’ lives. She had gained valuable experience in different areas of nursing while working in Moldova, but the country lacked geriatric nursing positions. It was something new for her that she was excited to take on, especially due to her lifelong admiration and respect for older adults.

“They have so much wisdom and life experience to share, and I find that it’s incredibly rewarding to provide them with the care and support they need. My favorite part of working with older adults is building strong, trusting relationships and seeing the positive impact that compassionate care can have on their quality of life,” she says.

Seeing for herself how nursing can make a difference, Nadejda’s daughter has chosen to follow in her award-winning mother’s footsteps. She is going into her third year in nursing school at Merrimack College!

Meet Mireille Michaud: Nursing Assistant of the Year

When Mireille heard her name announced as the 2024 Nursing Assistant of the Year, she felt overcome with joy. “I knew I was nominated, but I didn’t know they were going to pick me. There were a lot of emotions, and it made me feel really, really happy,” she recalls.

Mireille is a senior patient care associate at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center at NewBridge on the Charles in Dedham, MA. She joined Hebrew SeniorLife in 2016 and provided care for patients at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston before transitioning to NewBridge on the Charles.

Growing up in Haiti, becoming a nurse was Mireille’s lifelong dream. Her father was one of her biggest inspirations, always encouraging her to pursue higher education and make something of herself professionally. “Me becoming a nurse was one of my dad’s biggest dreams,” she says.

Mireille attended nursing school at the University of Notre Dame in Haiti. In 2008, she moved to the United States with her parents and daughter and pursued a career as a certified nursing assistant.

As a senior patient care associate, Mireille assists her patients with their daily needs, takes them to activities, monitors vitals, and ensures smooth operations on the floor. She finds the work immensely rewarding.

“What I find most rewarding is the good relationships with the patients. I can support them and make sure they feel stable. I think of everyone on the floor as family. When providing care, if it were one of my children or my mom, I would do the same for them. I make sure that I can be a support system, and after work, I can leave with a smile and know I did something good during the day,” she explains.

One aspect Mireille deeply values about working at Hebrew SeniorLife is the understanding and support available to employees from Haiti. “If I feel like I need to talk about something, I can go to the rabbi. She is always updated on what’s going on in my country when something bad happens, like when we had a major earthquake or when our president was assassinated. They always send emails about who we can talk to. They know our feelings. They understand what it is like to have family over there,” she explains.

Mireille says working with older adults has made her more compassionate and kinder. “We can learn from them, listen to them, and hear their stories,” she explains. She loves seeing photos from her patients’ earlier years, which offer glimpses into their past and who they are.

Mireille has experienced easier and more challenging days working in nursing. The earliest days of the pandemic were particularly difficult — people were confused and scared, and she sent her children to stay with her parents to keep them safe because of her exposure risk as a frontline worker.

However, one heartfelt comment from a patient’s daughter during this period highlighted the impact of her hard work. “I remember one day, I had a patient on my assignment speaking to her family through Zoom because of pandemic protocols. Her daughter said to me, ‘Even though I can’t see my mom, when I know you’re working that day, I know she is going to be okay,’” recalls Mireille.

Advance your nursing career at Hebrew SeniorLife

We celebrate our nursing staff — it’s one of the many reasons nurses thrive at Hebrew SeniorLife. If you choose to pursue a nursing career at Hebrew SeniorLife, you’ll have the opportunity to explore different nursing career paths such as new nursing roles, leadership positions, and higher education opportunities.

Are you interested in learning more? Read more about nursing careers at Hebrew SeniorLife or view our open nursing jobs today.