Spotlight on Michelle Smith, RN
Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital has been in Michelle Smith’s life for as long as she can remember.
“It’s our community! My mother and father were born in this hospital,” Smith says. “I have an original bill. It was $25.16 for my mom being born here.”
Smith’s mother went on to work at SBELIH, and Smith herself started as a nursing aide in 1989 when she was pregnant with her daughter, Brittney, who is now an SBELIH nursing aide herself. Today, Smith is an Emergency Department RN, but she’s worn many hats, from switchboard operator to accounts payable.
When she was growing up, some of the hospital’s doctors made house calls, including the beloved Dr. Z. Micah Kaplan and his father, who she calls “great men.”
In recent years, Smith has seen the hospital change and grow, from its integration with Stony Brook Medicine to seeing the local community grow dramatically during COVID, when a huge amount of people migrated from the city to the North Fork.
“We used to have one nurse at night,” Smith says. “It’s definitely changed in the last few years.”
A positive change, Smith says, is the new administrative team, which has brought resources from Stony Brook University Hospital to do educational programs for the nurses. “We have had more resources and education since Suzie Marriott took over.” The programs have included seminars on trauma, as well as labor and intensive care. Smith says that the current administration is approachable, easy to talk to and helpful. “In all the years I’ve been here, this is the best education we’ve gotten.”
Despite the hospital’s small size and location on the East End, Smith thinks that the quality of care keeps people coming back, whether it’s to the ER or one of the hospital’s growing list of services.
As the years go by, Smith continues to love her job. “We all take care of each other. It’s a very cool place. I’d never leave,” she says.
