NYU Langone Health has opened its Lerner Holistic Integrative Health Nursing Fellowship to nurses nationwide, expanding a program that has historically been reserved for its own workforce. The fellowship guides nurses to identify gaps in care, pilot wellness-based interventions, and develop programs that strengthen both patient outcomes and nursing leadership.

The fellowship has been available to nurses at NYU Langone Health for the past three years, with the impact of the fellows’ pilot projects reaching 3,955 patients, caregivers, and staff in 2025.

“When we invest in nurses’ wellbeing and encourage innovation in patient care, we transform care for patients, caregivers, and teams, reframing healthcare around the needs of the whole person,” said Katrina Vigo, RN, senior nurse clinician and fellowship coordinator.

The fellowship helps nurses address issues that are all too common in healthcare today: caregivers struggling in waiting rooms, patients facing not only physical illness but also emotional and spiritual distress, and healthcare workers seeking ways to support patients at life’s most vulnerable moments. The Lerner Fellowship gives nurses the tools and dedicated time to take action.

Fellows learn to care for themselves by experiencing the same breathing exercises, mindfulness techniques, and holistic approaches they’ll teach patients, including aromatherapy, guided imagery, and meditation. As part of the fellowship, nurses launch pilot programs that respond directly to a healthcare need.

“The project ideas come from the fellows and address real needs they are seeing in their clinical experience,” Vigo said.

For Parvita Bhoodai, RN, in the gynecologic oncology outpatient office practice, the path to nursing combined her lifelong interests. Her college offered a nursing program, and her mother, a nurse, gave her a day-in-the-life perspective. “I realized this could be something I like because it combines teaching, science, and helping,” Bhoodai said.

When Bhoodai saw the fellowship application, she knew it was an opportunity to enhance how patients are supported before surgery. She created Empowered Healing: Your Perioperative Guide to Wellness, a booklet providing integrative health techniques before surgery and a comprehensive list of NYU Langone resources.

In its three-month pilot phase, the booklet reached over 3,500 patients and now reaches approximately 300 patients per week at NYU Langone’s Kimmel Pavilion.

For Julia Smith, RN, an assistant nurse manager in the gastrointestinal and colorectal surgery unit, a project emerged from her interest in caring for patients at the end of life. She found that nearly half of 163 healthcare workers surveyed didn’t feel comfortable caring for patients at the end of life, and over half had never received any training on the topic.

“It was something that I had learned on the job from my colleagues,” Smith said. “We teach each other ways to care for somebody when they’re dying and how to care for each other.”

Working with bereavement educators, social workers, and the spiritual care program manager, Smith developed the training Navigating Grief, Loss, and End of Life Support for Healthcare Professionals. Since its first session in May 2025, the course has had 82 staff participants. Additionally, 100 percent of staff agreed the training improved their comfort level in caring for patients reaching the end of their life and their families. The program is currently open across NYU Langone to all healthcare professionals.

“Being able to care for yourself well and show up for patients in the best state possible allow you to better connect and serve them. This is the core of nursing and something all of us went into nursing for,” said Smith, who is now pursuing a leadership position.

For the 2026 cohort, the program has expanded to include collaborative group projects addressing health equity, bereavement and end-of-life care; health promotion through the Healthy Mondays for Hospitals initiative; integrative health research; and comprehensive support for patients, caregivers, and staff.

The Lerner Health Promotion Program at NYU Langone advances whole-person health through education, research, and innovative programs that support the physical, emotional, and social wellbeing of patients, caregivers, and staff. In addition to this fellowship, key initiatives include Healthy Monday for Hospitals, integrative health and wellness programming at Rusk Rehabilitation, the Self-Care Resource Cart, and a Visiting Scholars Program that fosters interdisciplinary scholarship in whole-person and integrative health.

Media Inquiries

Arielle Sklar
Phone: 646-960-2696
Arielle.Sklar@NYULangone.org