Michele Kunz RN April 2020 caring for Covid-19 patients
My First Nursing Job
I was hired in 1980 at Staten Island University Hospital during the severe nursing shortage in New York City. Even though I was a new nurse, I started in the Intensive Care Unit.
I had to learn very quickly how to be an ICU nurse. Some of the nurses there made me learn very quickly because, in an ICU, there isn’t much time for the nurses to be training a brand-new nurse. So I had to learn about my job very quickly. I soon realized that if I taught the other nurses in the hospital how to do things, I would also learn how to be a better nurse.
The more I taught the other nurses, the more I understood nursing. I found this very rewarding, and I loved helping them. I had developed a reputation as a preceptor and never minded the added responsibilities.
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My Passion For Teaching Grows
After teaching other nurses for a few years, I became an expert in many nursing topics. I then realized that nurses were coming to me for information and training. It was easy to see that there was also a shortage of nurses who had the ability or desire to teach other nurses effectively.
Back at that time, the hospital forced physicians to teach nurses. But the physicians didn’t have the teaching ability, desire, or time to relate to the nurses. I could easily connect with the nurses, so I was popular, and the nurses loved me – and I loved what I was teaching. My passion for nursing and helping other nurses never wore out.
I Get A Formal Teaching Job
In 1984 I moved to Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. There I became a Staff Development Instructor in the Nursing Education Department. For the first time, my official job was to teach hundreds of nurses. I was also now teaching American Heart Assn. Certification classes in ACLS, BLS, and PALS to the entire hospital staff.
By 1997 I was the Director of Nursing Education and Research. I would remain there until 2009 – when I moved to Mercy Medical Center on Long Island to become their Director of Nursing Education and Research.
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I Meet My Partner
In 1984 I also met my husband, Joseph. He was already an entrepreneur – and was already running his first start-up company on Long Island. We hit it off right away. Joseph has extraordinary management, marketing, and technology skills that have helped make our little company the professional enterprise it is today. He quickly realized the potential of the computer and the internet to support our business and help it grow and improve.
We Learn How To Manage A Training Company
In 1985 a nursing friend told me about a part-time nursing educator job at a nursing staffing company in Brooklyn. It sounded like an excellent way to do more teaching. So, my husband Joe came with me as an assistant instructor. While there, we learned the ins and outs of running and managing an actual training company.
After a few years, my reputation for training was well-known throughout Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau (Long Island, New York). We received excellent feedback on the learning experiences we gave them. We were also getting requests to come to medical offices and hospital departments to teach the ACLS, BLS, and PALS.
We then decided to set up our own little training company. We haven’t stopped teaching since then. At first, we were teaching at a few medical offices. But word about us spread quickly. Soon we were teaching classes throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk.
We Bring In Help to Expand
In 2003 we hired a nursing friend, Christine Molinari, whom I worked with at SIUH, to handle our day-to-day sales and class schedule. As a result, she developed extensive contacts throughout the nursing and medical community here in New York City and Long Island.
Self-Publishing Superstars: Nurse educator Michele Kunz and her business partner/husband Joseph make their BookExpo/BookCon debut
By 2007, we were training the medical staff of over 600 hospitals, medical offices, and surgicenters on Long Island and New York City, the medical staff at a military base, and the student body and faculty of several colleges where students are studying to be RNs and PAs.
We Expand Our Audience
When we started teaching classes in 1984, we had to develop study materials for our students. Not much existed in the marketplace. And what study materials did exist weren’t very popular or user-friendly. So we developed study materials for each subject that we were teaching.
We listened to what our students were saying about the study material and fine-tuned it over the years. Eventually, word spread about our study guides, and we began getting requests from college professors and hospitals for copies of our guides. Soon we were getting requests from all over the country.
So, in 2003 we decided to make our study guides commercially available. We re-designed our study materials to make them commercially viable. We set up our publishing company and began distributing them worldwide.
Joe, Michele, and Christine celebrating another great year together!
We Shift Gears
The Covid Pandemic of 2019/20 and the Loss of Christine
Because of the Covid Pandemic, we stopped having classes for a while. During that time, Joe and I were both infected, but recovered quickly. And we lost our dearest friend and colleague, Christine, to cancer. She fought it for two years and then lost the battle on the night of April 21, 2020.
After this, we shifted gears slightly and geographically consolidated our classes to Nassau, Suffolk, and the northeast part of Queens. We had some substantial hospital accounts in Manhattan, Westchester, and Brooklyn but decided to devote all of our energies away from those areas. Because we taught there for many years, many of our devoted students in those areas started traveling to us for the classes.
It Became Our Life’s Mission
Our little company started as a fun way to work together, help nurses, utilize our talents, spend more time with each other, and make a few extra dollars. It turned into our life’s mission – to help medical providers be better, more productive, and happier. -MGK
Testimonial
I have already been to Michele’s classes three times. The Zombie Notes are the best memorization guide available. Michele is also the best educator around, by far. We ask her to teach our office every time.
Dr. Steven Macharola, Island Eye Surgi-Center, Carle Place, NY
