by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
One of the Jacksonville Children’s Commission’s (JCC) nurses and moms received an extra-special Mother’s Day gift last weekend for being not only a dedicated nurse, but also a “mother-figure” to numerous children over the past 17 years.
Francine Marabell, RN, MSN and senior manager of developmental health for the JCC, was recognized in the category of “Community Nursing” Saturday at the Great 100 Nurses 2007 Celebration for her attention to the needs of children in Jacksonville and other communities, according to Linda Lanier, chief executive officer of the Children’s Commission.
The award was presented by Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida, Inc., an organization whose mission is to fund scholarships for nursing students and to celebrate nursing in the community and promote support for the profession.
Marabell leads a collaborative effort between the JCC and Duval County Health Department to improve the health of Jacksonville’s children under the age of five who are enrolled in subsidized childcare. She was nominated by Barbara J. Kruger, Ph.D., MPH, RN, Assistant Professor College of Health and head of the Home Base Program at the University of North Florida – a program that Marabell coordinates to broaden accelerated nursing students’ knowledge by providing hands-on community experience to about 12 students per semester.
“The award was a high point in my career,” said Marabell. “It was extremely gratifying to have something to show for all my years of working and it made me feel very special.”
The 39-year-old mother of two was recently asked to become an adjunct professor at UNF enabling her to provide students with a holistic education program by further guiding their experience and course work.
“Teaching is another thing I love and this was just another way to help incorporate that passion into my work,” she said.
The New York native started her career in the Big Apple back in 1990 right out of nursing school when she went to work in the field of pediatric oncology with terminally ill children at the world-renowned Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She remained there for five years while simultaneously pursuing her master’s in Nursing Administration.
Knowing from that experience that working in an area with children was what she most enjoyed, Marabell went on to Mount Sinai Hospital in Queens, N.Y. and served in the division of Preoperative Services where she was able to enhance surgical services to children and their families through educational efforts that employed colors, music and children’s themes.
“Anything I could do to work with children and help them and their families, I did,” said Marabell, who has a 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. She was also responsible for creating “Siblings Day” at many of the hospitals where she worked so siblings of patients could get a look at what procedures their brother or sister was about to undergo.
“They’d get to put on scrubs and tour the facilities and have their pictures taken,” she said.
After Mount Sinai, she went on to work at Belleview Hospital in New York City until 1998 when her father, who lived in Palm Coast, Fla. at the time, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Within two weeks, Marabell moved to Florida to take care of him and has been here ever since and continues to utilize her nursing skills in Florida in a number of different fields.
She has served as an adjunct professor of Nursing at Daytona Beach Community College and as a nurse at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine.
In addition to serving on a number of nurses’ boards since her career began, Marabell also organizes and participates in numerous health festivals throughout Jacksonville to educate parents on children’s health issues and is less than a semester away from earning a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.
“The areas of working with children and teaching are my passions – ones that I will continue to be involved in,” she said. “That’s what makes me most happy.”