Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
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Batya Radzik has worked as a nurse practitioner in the Neurocritical Care Unit since 2006. With a multidisciplinary team, she manages the needs of critically ill patients with a variety of neurologic diseases, such as those with stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, brain tumors, spinal cord injury, neurologic infections, and uncontrollable seizures (status epilepticus). She helps to diagnose and manage the disease while coordinating a patient’s care with many specialists. As a nurse practitioner, she offers a very holistic approach to medicine that addresses a patient’s medical and social needs as well as the needs of the family.

In addition to her clinical duties, Ms. Radzik is involved with two main research projects. The goal of one project is to improve pain management of patients who are undergoing surgery for Arnold-Chiari malformation, a disorder in which the base of the brain extends into the spinal cord. The study will determine if an injection of local anesthetic into the scalp can block postoperative pain. In the second study, Ms. Radzik is working with Dr. Lucia Rivera Lara to determine if noninvasive monitoring with near-infrared spectroscopy can be used to optimize blood pressure in patients with acute coma or encephalopathy. Individualizing a patient’s blood pressure target, rather than using the same target for all patients, may improve neurologic recovery.

Ms. Radzik enjoys her work as a nurse practitioner because she likes the ability to work both independently and as part of team. She also likes being able to act as an advocate for the patients while holding together all of the threads of their healthcare delivery. In the long term, she would like to gain a better understanding of the medical and social issues that affect patients through research projects and conversations with patients and their families. She believes that such knowledge will allow nurse practitioners to optimize both medical care and end-of-life care.

Education

Batya Radzik graduated from the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, in 2000 and then earned her master’s degree in nursing at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004.