On the front line of COVID-19: Meet Grand Concourse
native and nurse practitioner, Deirdre Keane
BY JENNA BAGCAL
Grand Concourse native
Deirdre Keane’s journey to becoming
a nurse practitioner
started when she was just a
teen.
At that time, her father had
just died from cancer and her
mother quit her job to raise
her and her siblings. Though
money was tight, Keane recalled
that her mother encouraged
her kids to work hard in
all aspects of their lives. The
steadfast work ethic coupled
with an inspiration to work in
oncology led Keane to attend
nursing school in Boston.
“I really wanted to work
in oncology after losing my
dad to cancer, but I knew my
family wouldn’t be able to afford
for me to go to med school
and needed a major that would
give me a career straight out
of college. I was very fortunate
and got a scholarship to nursing
school in Boston,” Keane
said in an email to the Bronx
Times.
After earning a bachelor’s
of science in nursing, Keane
began working as a pediatric
ICU nurse at the Children’s
Hospital at Montefi ore
(CHAM).
“I loved and still love it
there. However, I wanted to be
the one making the decisions,”
Keane said. “I worked there
for fi ve years full time while
I went to school part time at
Columbia to become a nurse
practitioner and then continued
to get my doctorate.”
She said that she could
never forget about her dream
of taking care of patients with
cancer, so she joined the team
at Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center (MSKCC) as a
pediatric ICU nurse practitioner.
Thank You
To all the brave and selfl ess Nurses for being on the frontline
in this extreme time of need.
Your professionalism will never be forgotten.
And a Huge THANK YOU to all essential workers for being there.
��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
��������������������������������������������������������������������
BRONX TIMES R 22 EPORTER, MAY 8-14, 2020 BTR
During this time, she continued
working part time and
eventually per diem at Montefi
ore.
“Then COVID hit. New
York city was the epicenter of
the pandemic and at the very
heart of it, was the Bronx,”
Keane said. “I had to help. So
nearly every night I was not at
my full-time job working as an
NP at MSKCC, I was working
as an RN in the pediatric ICU
at CHAM.”
For the past two months,
Keane has worked six nights a
week in addition to attending
virtual classes to earn her MBA
from New York University. She
recalled that Montefi ore was
hit “incredibly hard” during
the onset of the COVID-19 crisis
and some weeks at CHAM were
“scary and disheartening.”
“We worked as a team and
kept going though and now we
are fi nally starting to see improvements,”
she shared.
Keane said that her friends
both near and far have been
supportive during this time,
asking if she needed personal
protective equipment (PPE) or
other supplies.
“Truthfully, I, personally,
don’t need anything. The hospitals
I work in have enough
PPE to get by and many organizations
have been incredibly
generous by donating food,”
said Keane, who added that
her loved ones have also helped
to keep her mental health in
check.
To lend her help even further
to the Bronx, which has
the highest COVID-19 death
rate in any U.S. county, with
the poorest congressional district,
she joined the East Bronx
Democratic Group. The group
had created a mutual aid fund
to address the Bronx’s food insecurity
issue.
“I wanted to help more but
free time is still limited. However,
I am a huge runner and
big marathoner. I thought
maybe I could intrigue friends
to donate by setting up a running
challenge for myself,” said
Keane.
Together with the group,
she created a fundraiser to
raise money for grocery store
cards that would go toward
low-income families in the
Bronx. Her goal is to run 1000
miles in the next three months,
a feat that she has not yet taken
on before. She aims to match
each mile she runs with a dollar
donation.
So far, she’s run 70 miles in
the fi rst six days.
“Just 930 miles to go,” she
said.
Those interested in donating
to the cause can do so at
this link: bit.ly/DK4BX.
Deirdre Keane Courtesy of Deirdre Keane
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������