For some serving right this moment in Navy Medication, the time period Navy Household can maintain a really literal which means. Simply ask the Maldarelli sisters whose private and Navy Household intermingle.
Capt. Jill Maldarelli-Drey is a 22-year veteran of the Navy who serves because the Assistant Director for Nurse Corps Coverage and Apply on the Bureau of Medication (BUMED). Her youthful sister, Lt. Cmdr. Karen Maldarelli, a nine-year veteran, serves as a Plans, Operations, and Medical Intelligence Officer (POMI) on the Naval Medical Readiness & Coaching Command (NMRTC) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
“We come from a household the place healthcare has all the time loomed massive,” mentioned “Capt. Maldarelli-Drey. Their mom, an aunt, and a cousin served as civilian nurses. When it got here time to decide on a career, Maldarelli-Drey adopted go well with. After learning at Marymount College in Arlington, Va., and dealing on the Virginia Hospital Heart (then often known as Arlington Hospital), she determined to enter the Navy. Whereas in service she met her husband—a Navy Air Visitors Management Restricted Obligation Officer. After which in 2014, Karen joined the Navy Medical Service Corps as a healthcare administrator.
“Rising up as Jill’s little sister I realized many issues from her and I’ve seemed to her for lots,” mentioned Lt. Cmdr. Maldarelli. “Simply seeing Jill flourish within the Navy was thrilling for me.”
Though her sister’s vocation was not in her playing cards, healthcare was all the time an aspiration for this self-described “blacksheep” of a household with deep nursing roots. Following commencement from Marymount College, she labored transportation coverage on the U.S. Home of Representatives, after which finance within the personal sector earlier than finishing a Grasp’s in Healthcare Administration and a Grasp of Enterprise Administration.
Over their careers, the Maldarelli sisters have collectively served in workers and medical assignments, at coaching instructions, as embarked personnel with fleet surgical groups, onshore at Army Remedy Services (MTF), on the operational aspect and for a time served concurrently at BUMED.
In 2022, this private and Navy Household connection grew bigger when their first cousin, Lt. (junior grade) Kyra Leszcynski obtained her fee within the Navy Nurse Corps. Leszcynski, who’s presently engaged on a nurse residency at Naval Medical Heart Portsmouth, Va., is the youngest of the 16 grandchildren on their mom’s aspect. She credit the Maldarelli sisters with inspiring her personal trek into the Navy.
“I had all the time been within the Navy,” mentioned Leszcynski. “And at household gatherings I’d usually ask Jill and Karen about their careers. I noticed what nice careers that they had and acknowledged that they have been gathering life experiences that you just couldn’t get within the civilian world.”
All through their time in service, their profession paths curiously intersected with that one other Maldarelli, believed to be associated by their nice grandfather.
Cmdr. Suzanne Maldarelli, who at present serves because the Employees Schooling and Coaching Division Head and the Market Schooling and the Coaching Lead at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, first met Capt. Jill Maldarelli-Drey when each have been junior nurses working labor and supply at NMC Portsmouth. They later attended the College of North Florida collectively on Full-time Obligation Below Instruction (DUINS). Whereas Jill and Karen’s nice grandfather Francesco (Frank) Maldarelli emigrated to the USA from Bari, Italy, Cmdr. Maldarelli’s grandfather Giorgio (George) originated in Naples, Italy, and moved to the USA as a younger man in 1910s.
Regardless of not having the identical healthcare roots as her “different household,” for Cmdr. Maldarelli’s there was all the time an expectation of navy service. As a result of an harm and his age, her grandfather was not accepted into navy service throughout World Battle II, nevertheless, all 5 of his sons served and represented the Army, Navy, Marines Corps and Air Nationwide Guard. Suzanne’s brother served within the Marine Corps and helped encourage her personal entry into the Navy Nurse Corps in 1999.
All through all of their careers, whether or not as nurses or healthcare directors, care and help has been on the crux of what they do and, on the finish of the day, stays the hallmark for what a household is.
“On the finish of the day, your loved ones are the those who love you and help you,” mentioned Capt. Maldarelli-Drey. “What I’ve all the time favored about Navy Medication, particularly in nursing, is that along with taking good care of each other on a day-to-day foundation, within the occasion that you just or a member of the family requires care within the inpatient or outpatient setting, it’s our fellow Navy Medication colleagues that present that care. This brings the phrase ‘taking good care of one another’ to an entire one other stage.”
“Household can be your shipmates,” mentioned Cmdr. Suzanne Maldarelli. “That is no extra evident than across the holidays particularly whenever you’re abroad. Household is actually ensuring that you just’re taking good care of them and that they’re taking good care of you.”
