2025 -- H 6310

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LC002853

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2025

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

HONORING AND THANKING DONNA POLICASTRO ON THE OCCASION OF HER

RETIREMENT

     Introduced By: Representatives Bennett, Shekarchi, Blazejewski, Chippendale,
Edwards, Diaz, Azzinaro, Kazarian, Solomon, and Finkelman

     Date Introduced: May 08, 2025

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, Over the past fifty-six years, Donna Policastro has educated, monitored, and

administered to the needs of the people of Rhode Island as a dedicated and devoted registered

nurse; and

     WHEREAS, Ms. Policastro began her career in the emergency room at Roger Williams

General Hospital, and after a year and a half, she undertook a position as the evening charge

nurse at Butler Hospital. With the hope of finding her “niche” as a nurse, she then shifted to the

world of community health, and began working with the Providence Health Centers; and

     WHEREAS, In 1976, Ms. Policastro attended the New Jersey College of Medicine and

Dentistry, and subsequently returned to Rhode Island as an OB/GYN nurse practitioner. At that

time, the women’s health nursing field had very few practitioners in Rhode Island; and

     WHEREAS, Ms. Policastro, along with the small but dedicated group of OB/GYN nurse

practitioners, chose to band together in order to work on passage of legislation to make

improvements dealing with prescriptive privileges, third party reimbursement, global signature

authority, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) consensus model, and surgical smoke

evacuation-in all operating rooms that generated smoke during an operative procedure; and

     WHEREAS, Ms. Policastro’s most memorable accomplishments during those years were

speaking in favor of the Affordable Care Act representing the American Nurses’ Association

before the Congressional Ways and Means Committee consisting of 3.2 million nurses, and

leading the charge in founding the Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College Charter School,

and later in 2014, when she was asked to once again build a regional model for APRN’s members

which was introduced in 2018; and

     WHEREAS, In 2005, after having gained invaluable knowledge and the respect of her

colleagues, Ms. Policastro was appointed Executive Director of the Rhode Island State Nurses

Association (RISNA), a position she held for the following two decades; and

     WHEREAS, After more than five and a half decades in nursing and administration, Ms.

Policastro stepped down as Executive Director in the Spring of 2025, to serve as a contract

lobbyist and representative for the Nurse Practitioner Alliance of Rhode Island; and

     WHEREAS, Over the course of her distinguished career, Donna Policastro has earned

and received myriad awards and honors for her contributions to the nursing profession, or as she

would say “…a nurse who takes care of nurses”, which in turn, has had a positive impact on the

lives of generations of citizens in Rhode Island; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

honors and thanks Donna Policastro for fifty-six years of working to better the health and lives of

the people of this State. We wish her much happiness, and good health in her well-earned

retirement; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Donna Policastro.

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