Meet Nicole Apparicio, Registered Nurse in MGH’s Nurse-Led Outreach Team

Tell us about yourself!

Hi, my name is Nicole Apparicio and I am a Registered Nurse and Supervisor for the Nurse-Led Outreach Team (NLOT) at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH). I have worked at MGH for the past 22 years!

What motivated you to join MGH?

When I graduated from nursing school, I was looking for a hospital to get a good start with my career. I started working at MGH and I thought I would later leave to branch out to other hospitals downtown.

I’m still here 22 years later! I am not only enjoying an amazing career, but have made a great group of lifelong friends at MGH.

What types of learning, mentorship or professional development opportunities have you had the opportunity to pursue since joining MGH?

I have grown tremendously in many aspects of my field, whether it’s through participating in various workshops, mentoring student nurses or having the opportunity to be selected for MGH's leadership program. These experiences have shaped me into the nurse I am today.

Can you share your career path at MGH?

2000: I started working at MGH in the fall of 2000.

2008: I had the opportunity to become the Supervisor of a medicine unit. In this role, I also enjoyed having the opportunity to mentor student nurses.

2010: I was able to join an exciting new program in the hospital called the Nurse-Led Outreach Team. This team provides emergency care to long-term care homes in order to reduce avoidable visits to hospital emergency departments. The NLOT played a major role and made a huge impact in supporting long-term care homes during COVID-19 outbreaks.

What motivates or inspires you?

What most inspires me to be a part of MGH is the hospital’s consistent drive to provide the best quality care for patients and their families.

I see this with my colleagues on a regular basis and admire their dedication and drive in providing compassionate and quality care.

If you could share one memorable moment from your time at MGH, what stands out to you?

One of the most memorable times for me was working through the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been both frightening and rewarding.

The NLOT was responsible for providing emergency care to several long-term care homes on COVID-19 outbreak.

During the beginning of the pandemic, these homes were left with only a skeleton staff. Many staff members were off work due to having COVID-19 themselves. Some other staff members refused to come to work due to the fear of exposing their families to this deadly virus.

Many long-term care homes did not have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and the COVID-19 vaccine was not yet available at the time.

We were in unchartered territory.

Through collaboration with MGH and physicians like Dr. Jeff Powis, Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control at MGH, and Dr. Jarred Rosenberg, Geriatrician at MGH, our team and the long-term care homes were able to get the critical support they needed to navigate the pandemic.

To me, this truly demonstrated the concept of it takes a village to support a community.

Seeing the outpouring of support from the communities surrounding MGH made me realize and appreciate even more the incredible work that was being done by all staff.

I can say I am truly proud to be part of the MGH family!