Coney Island Hospital Nurse Wins Nobel Prize Of City Government

A nurse at Coney Island Hospital (2601 Coney Island Hospital) got a dose of recognition recently, when The Fund for the City of New York honored her public service and eminent leadership in behavioral health and palliative care.

Donna Leno Gordon won the Sloan Public Service Awards, dubbed the “Nobel Prize of City Government,” given to only six outstanding civil servants in a city of millions.

Gordon founded Coney Island Hospital’s palliative care unit, bringing together a team of doctors from different fields to address the physical, emotional, spiritual and social concerns that arise with most advanced illnesses.

This has been Gordon’s focus at Coney Island Hospital for almost two decades. But Gordon believes she deserves no credit for this award. “This award is not about me, it’s about the entire palliative care field and how far it has come,” she told the Daily News.

In 2010 Coney Island Hospital devoted a 19-bed unit to patients with advanced diseases and possibly terminal illnesses.

Her success has allowed the spread of palliative care into other city and HHC establishments, and because of this Mayor Michael Bloomberg commended Gordon, along with the other five award recipients, at the Cooper Union on March 14.

“New York City is blessed with a great public workforce and this year’s honorees represent not only the best of government, but the very best of what our City has to offer,” Bloomberg said in a HHC press release.

Coney Island Hospital is currently the local and regional leader in palliative care.