Inspiring Islip Teenagers

The executive director of Southside Hospital recently joined with other successful women at the Islip Women’s Forum to help inspire young women to pursue their ambitious dreams.

Donna Moravick, NP, who worked her way up through the ranks in the North Shore-LIJ Health system to lead Southside Hospital, urged the gathering at Islip Middle School to believe in their dreams. She previously thought she would become something that involved helping people because she couldn’t afford the education to become a nurse, but through hard work and dedication she has earned her Bachelors, Masters of Science as a nurse practitioner and a Masters of Business Administration.

“I have a motto at the hospital – be the best you can be,” she said. “We constantly have to be striving to be the best that we can be, especially when patient care is involved.”

She worked several jobs to put herself through college, with some assistance from her family, and became one of the first four nurse practitioners at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

“Before I didn’t think that I could, but now I know I can,” is what she said she would tell her teenage self.

Ms. Moravick got her first inkling that she wanted to be a nurse when she was about three years old. She watched a nurse give her grandmother an injection and said she was curious about how this needle worked. She was mesmerized when the nurse used water to give her a demonstration.

In addition to Ms. Moravick, Angie Carpenter, supervisor of the Town of Islip; Sue Schnebel, superintendent of the Islip school district; and Doris Kennedy, president of the Islip Chamber of Commerce, participated in the discussion.