Jennifer Chiusano: Growing up in the Cardiac Program
Jennifer Chiusano’s rise to the top of the Cardiac Care Nursing Unit at Sentara Heart Hospital
By Joan Tupponce

JENNIFER CHIUSANO, RN

Each day Jennifer Chiusano, RN, remembers the advice she received from a wise chemistry teacher: Focus on two things in the future - heath care and computers.

"I'll never forget that," says Chiusano, now director of Cardiac Nursing for Sentara Heart Hospital at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. "I chose health care."

After receiving her bachelor's degree in nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1984, Chiusano practiced in southern Indiana and Hawaii before moving to Norfolk. She's been with Sentara Norfolk General for the past 20 years.

"When I came to Norfolk from Hawaii, I was one of the first nurses at Sentara who worked full-time for a resource pool," she explains. "Every day I worked some place different."

Chiusano, 42, worked in the floating position for a year before landing an assignment in the Cardiac Step-Down Unit, taking care of patients who had undergone open-heart surgery. "I've been with cardiac ever since," she says.

After about six years, Chiusano was promoted to assistant manager for the Cardiac Unit. "I managed the telemetry technicians," she explains. "I did that for five years and then managed cardiac surgery outcomes data. We were one of the first hospitals that really looked at the data very carefully."

A few years later, Chiusano began work for the Congestive Heart Failure Program that Sentara began. Four years ago, the Kentucky native became the director of all the cardiac units at the hospital - ICU, Cardiac OR, the step-down units, telemetry and the pre-post recovery area for cardiac patients.

Sentara Heart Hospital opened this past February, helping to consolidate and streamline the hospital's cardiac care. "It's important to make sure our patients are getting here and when they are here, receiving quality patient care," Chiusano says. "There are a lot of details to take care of."

Chiusano spends most of her days ensuring that there is adequate staffing, quality and growth as it relates to her program.

The job can be demanding, she says. "It does take a lot of time and a lot of effort. There are a lot of hours and a lot of rewards. I do feel very privileged in this position. I've met a lot of people from around the country."

The six-floor heart hospital takes care of the sickest of patients - some needing transplants. "Our hospital had the first transplant in the area," Chiusano says. "I took care of the first heart transplant patient here. We also did the first cardiac stents and the first robotics cardiac surgery."

Chiusano feels fortunate that she's been able to grow up with the cardiac program at Sentara. "It's a prize jewel," she says. "When we made the first 'US News & World Report's' Top 50 and then Top 25 hospitals in the country, we were excited. What's good about that is that it's based on good quality care, not off of a reputation score. We have one of the lowest mortality ratios in the country. That's something we are proud of."

Chiusano is also proud of the nurses and physicians in the units she oversees. "From the time blood is drawn to the time patients go home, they get excellent care," she maintains. "It's exciting to work with people who provide that type of care."

As with any job, there are challenges that pop up. Chiusano lists resources, staffing and supplies as some of her major challenges. "My number one resource issue is staffing," she explains. "We are growing and finding people to do this type of work is tough. We have to figure how to deliver care in the future. The RN shortage projection is disconcerting. It's difficult to fill positions with highly skilled nurses. How we deliver care today will look different in 20 years. What it will look like, I'm not really sure."

Time away from work is spent with family and the family's miniature dachshund. "She's the master," Chiusano jokes. "She rules our world."

Like others in her field, Chiusano finds nursing to be a rewarding career. "We work with people who come to us in the most vulnerable state and we help them through the process and make them feel better so they can go home and return to life," she explains. "Not all careers can do that."