The Brooklyn South Hospice Team: Extraordinary Clinicians Working Tirelessly for Their Patients

Diane Blair, Supervisor for VNSNY’s Brooklyn South Hospice team, recalls a phone call that came into the office: “Do you have someone there named Vitaliy, a nurse, very tall?” When the answer was yes, the voice on the phone shouted to waiting family members, “This is the place, this is where we want Grandpa to go!”

The tall nurse, Coordinator of Care (COC) Vitaliy Generalov, makes a big impact on communities in and around Coney Island, bringing compassion and expertise to patients and families facing end of life. “I love hospice care,” says Vitaliy, a Belarusian immigrant who communicates in their own language with the sizeable Russian-speaking community in his area of Brooklyn, as well as working with families from many other cultures. “It’s really doing two jobs at one time—delivering the clinical care and also educating families every step of the way, talking to them about life, death, family, religion. The families are so appreciative.”

Although VNSNY allows telehealth visits because of the coronavirus and clinicians were directed to work telephonically as much as possible at the peak of the crisis, Vitaliy has opted to visit in person whenever he could, feeling that the human connection is essential in hospice care. Many of his patients live in multi-generational homes, and he wants to be there in person to deliver clinical care and comfort, educate family members, and impart important coronavirus information.

Although few of Vitaliy’s patients have the virus, he educates all families on safety precautions and also takes extra care himself. “I am not scared, because I have excellent training and I have protection,” he says, explaining how he dons and doffs proper PPE. “I pay close attention to what I am wearing and what I am doing every step of the way, every minute, every second.”

Osman Thomas, another COC on the Brooklyn South team, has also dedicated himself to visiting patients and their families in apartments and nursing homes in South Brooklyn whenever possible. In fact, notes Diane, Osman made the highest number of in-person visits of any VNSNY Hospice clinician during the pandemic’s peak, with 112 visits from April 7 through May 11.

“Nursing cannot be controlled by a robot,” says Osman, who was born in New York and raised around the globe, from Sierra Leone to Jamaica to Puerto Rico. “It’s important for me to see the family, and to really hear their concerns and what they are dealing with. Anyone can give medications, but going in person and explaining side-effects, interactions between medications, ideas behind why you do certain things—that’s another level of nursing. It brings the family relief in a difficult time.”

Osman had an additional challenge to his busy schedule: he had to take his National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) during the coronavirus lockdown. He was already committed to making the move from LPN to RN when New York’s “Pause” closed the testing site for his upcoming boards. Inspired by Diane to find a way forward, he worked with her to find an open testing site in Baltimore, and Osman made the three-hour drive after finishing his shift. Then he turned around and drove home, to get right back out in the field the next day.

“He likes to give me the credit—but it’s all Osman’s work,” Diane says, the pride clear in her voice. “I helped him along the way. You have to support your clinicians with whatever you can do, without a second thought. That helps make extraordinary clinicians.”

Diane credits the entire Brooklyn South team for going above and beyond to deliver interdisciplinary care in a time of great need. In addition to the above-mentioned staff, the team includes Maya Garala, Hospice Team Physician; Danielle Pavon, Nurse Practitioner; Ancy Charlot, Clinical Supervisor; Alicia Solomon, Hospice Team Assistant; Coordinators of Care Janice Lewis, Lyubov Yushuvayeva, Elena Tum and Anna Troilina; Nurse Vivia McField; Social Workers Evita Borko, Kristina Kovtonyuk and Mordechai Berkovitch; and Spiritual Care Counselors Lindsey Briggs and Michael Simmons.

By combining innovative telehealth support with these dedicated in-person visits, this extraordinary group of clinicians has brought a special impact to the end-of-life care they’ve delivered to patients and families throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. “Can you imagine,” asks Diane, “in these anxious, uncertain times—how much more suffering there would have been in families if not for clinicians like Osman and Vitaliy?”

To read more VNSNY Heroes of 2020 stories, please click here.