Nancy Bisco Flora retired from Saint Michael’s as chief nursing officer after working in Newark for nearly 50 years.
Read this article as it originally appeared January 10, 2024 in TAPinto Newark
When Nancy Bisco-Flora graduated from Bloomfield College in 1976 with a nursing degree, she landed her first job at what was then called Saint Michael’s Hospital.
“It was the only hospital I ever wanted to work at,” said Bisco-Flora, who completed the majority of her clinical training at the hospital. “I learned so much there because it offered every service, and it was such a great experience.”
From those early days as a rookie nurse, she rose through the ranks to become the chief nursing officer at the hospital, now called Saint Michael’s Medical Center.
After a lengthy career that spanned nearly 50 years, Bisco-Flora is retiring, though not completely leaving the hospital. She will return as needed as a per diem nursing supervisor.
“Nancy is an institution not only at Saint Michael’s, but in Newark,” said Saint Michael’s CEO Alan Sickles, MD. “Her nursing care has touched – either directly or indirectly – thousands upon thousands of people in Newark and the surrounding communities over several generations.”
Robert Lynch — who came to Saint Michael’s last year from Mount Sinai Brooklyn, where he was the director of nursing — has assumed the role of chief nursing officer as of the new year.
Bisco-Flora said she had wanted to become a nurse ever since she was seven years old. As a teenager, she volunteered at West Hudson Hospital as a candy striper – what volunteers were called in those days because of the color of their uniforms.
Over her career, Bisco-Flora has witnessed numerous changes, both in the health care field as well as at the hospital itself.
When she started working at Saint Michael’s, it was owned by Cathedral Health System, an arm of the Diocese of Newark. Over the years, the hospital went through a succession of ownership, from Cathedral Health to Catholic Health East to Trinity Health and finally to Prime Healthcare, which purchased the hospital out of bankruptcy in 2016.
Bisco-Flora worked at Saint Michael’s until 1982, when she left for a sister hospital owned by Cathedral, Columbus Hospital in Newark’s North Ward. While at Columbus she held various titles with numerous administrative responsibilities. She returned to Saint Michael’s in 2000, where she was put in charge of corporate compliance for all four hospitals owned by Cathedral, which at the time also included St. James Hospital in the East Ward and the Hospital Center of Orange.
By 2008, all three hospitals were closed by Catholic Health East and all operations were consolidated at Saint Michael’s. Many of the hospitals’ employees also shifted to Saint Michael’s at the time, reuniting Bisco-Flora with some of the colleagues she had worked with over the years.
“One of the things that I love is working in Newark and meeting the needs of people that really are underserved,” Bisco-Flora said.
“It was always my goal to be a CNO, but it took me a little while to get there,” she said. “I had a lot of detours and took on different responsibilities in day-to-day operations.”
When Saint Michael’s was acquired by Prime in 2016, Bisco-Flora finally got her opportunity to be a CNO.
“Being the chief nursing officer, which is the highest nursing position, is just a wonderful achievement for me because I believed I always had so much to share as far as knowledge and experience in various departments,” Bisco-Flora said. “It was my opportunity to form a wonderful team and make a difference. It is all about meeting the needs of our patients and treating them like family.”
In 2020, not long after the pandemic hit and devastated Newark, filling the hospital with hundreds of patients suffering with COVID-19, Bisco-Flora took on the added responsibility as the top administrator at the hospital for several months while a search was underway for a new CEO.
Bisco-Flora rose to the challenge, but she said she could not have done it without the support of the many colleagues who she worked with over the years.
“I was fortunate enough to have an awesome dedicated team throughout,” Bisco-Flora said. “The dedication of the team helped us get through all of the challenges. I have always believed that you are only as good as the people that you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with great people – everyone is successful. And my team was always phenomenal, which allowed us to get through it all.”