Student Uses Her Artistic Skills to Help Children

NEWBURGH – Creativity, innovation, and compassion: Whether she’s studying Nursing at Mount Saint Mary College or caring for COVID-19 patients at her job, senior Micaela Croniser of Hopewell Junction, N.Y. exhibits these traits in spades.

Croniser, a phlebotomist and technician in the Emergency Room of Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, says that Nursing is one of her greatest passions. Another is art, including painting (traditional and spray), drawing, and graphic design.

The resourceful Nursing major recently found a way to combine these talents: when she wasn’t in class or at work, Croniser designed and published “Everyone Goes to the Hospital from Time to Time,” a 22-page coloring book for children who visit the emergency room.

The book, currently being distributed at a local hospital, was designed to bring “comfort and a feeling of familiarity” to the children who must spend time in the ER, Croniser explained.

“I hope kids will be able to channel any fear they have of being in an emergency room or a hospital, or dealing with any type of health disparity, and try to find some type of ease during their stay,” she said.

Before she worked at Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall, Croniser interned at the Newburgh hospital. During her internship, she devised a plan to reallocate patient locations to cut down on the distance nurses would have to travel, leading to an increase of time to spend with the patients. With the support of her supervisor, Croniser drafted a schematic floor plan for the ER rooms. The plan was accepted and is now being implemented by the hospital’s shift charge nurses.

As her final semester as a Mount undergraduate comes to an end, Croniser has been reflecting on how much she has grown personally and professionally since her freshman year.

“The Mount has provided me with the skills and knowledge that I need to succeed as well as prepared me to take on any challenge that I face,” she said. “I have learned that the learning will never stop and there is always room for improvement.”

What she’ll miss most about college life are her beloved professors, she said.

“I have always been someone to look up to my professors,” Croniser explained. “I really do love to learn and…enjoy a learning environment.”

She credits several professors with molding her into the professional she is today.

“Every single one of my professors has been great…I can learn and take something different from each and every one of them,” said Croniser. She thanked Beth Boyd, assistant professor of Nursing, and Christine Berté, associate professor of Nursing, director of the graduate Nursing program, and chairperson of the college’s School of Nursing, for their energetic and motivational teaching styles. Croniser also thanked Antonia Brewer, instructor of Nursing, for being “compassionate and eager to teach.”

“I owe a lot to [Nursing instructor Kimberly] Poje, who has been guiding and supporting me since my first Nursing class,” Croniser added. “I owe her a lot for inspiring and uplifting me in many different ways.”

Two of the teachers Croniser looks up to the most were not professors at the Mount, she said, Croniser attributes her love of nursing to her mother and grandmother, who are both registered nurses. Her grandmother, who has retired from teaching nursing, “has helped me tremendously in tutoring me and providing me with a knowledge framed skillset,” she said.

Mount Nursing students enjoy state-of-the-art simulation labs and clinical relationships with more than 40 area hospitals. The Mount’s passionate faculty are dedicated to the success of both their undergraduate and graduate students.