Fillipon to Serve as Manager for Tower 7AB
Katie Fillipon, MS, RN, OCN, has been leading efforts to recruit, hire and orient clinical staff nurses for the newly renovated units on Tower 7AB, which officially opened at the end of January. In November, she was named nurse manager for the units.
“I had a tremendous orientation when I started on Tower 5A, and I’m striving to orient our clinical nursing staff to these new units providing that same positive, supportive experience,” said Fillipon, who first came to BWH in 2002. “It’s an amazing opportunity to open a new unit with experienced BWH nurses, experienced nurses new to BWH and recent graduates.”
Fillipon, a family nurse practitioner, earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from UMass-Lowell, and she is certified in end of life and palliative care nursing. She worked for six years as a clinical staff nurse in Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant units. Since September 2008, she has served as a nurse educator for Hem/Onc/BMT units. Additionally, she has served as a preceptor for new graduate nurses, nurse in-charge and clinical colleague.
“Katie demonstrated her exceptional nursing practice and dedication to our patients and families when she was at the bedside. Her obvious passion for the Hem/Onc/BMT patient population and her commitment to support clinical nurses really stood out during her time as an educator,” said Carolyn Hayes, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, director of Oncology Nursing and Clinical Services.
Fillipon lives out the Department of Nursing vision of excellent care to patients and families with exceptional interpersonal communication skills and ability to work collaboratively with members of the health care team, Hayes said.
Each unit on Tower 7AB will have 10 private rooms with 40 clinical staff nurses. The group includes a dynamic mix of nurses with experience caring for cancer patients at BWH and elsewhere. The group includes 15 new hires.
“I am passionate about caring for thematology/oncology/BMT patient population, and I understand the role of the clinical staff nurse,” Fillipon said. “I will go out of my way to make sure nursing staff feel supported.”