Dr. Kim Souffront Works to Mitigate Hypertension
Kimberly Souffront, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, FAAN, is a trailblazer in the nursing and medical field. Dr. Souffront, or “Kim” as loved ones call her, describes herself as a scientist, health equity advocate, emergency nurse practitioner, hypertension researcher, and a loving wife and mom of four children. She is indeed all that and so much more. Dr. Souffront met with me to share the story of her remarkable journey.
Dr. Kimberly Souffront grew up in Westbury, Nassau County, New York, in a suburb about 25 miles outside of New York City. Raised in a loving family with parents who immigrated from Jamaica, she is the Second eldest of four siblings. Her mother is a Director of Nursing for a nearby healthcare system, while her father has been a mechanic for over 50 years and is the long-time owner of an automotive shop specializing in foreign cars in the city.
As an emergency trained Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Souffront’s research interests include hypertension and health disparities. Her research aims to achieve health equity and eliminate disparities related to hypertension health outcomes in emergency department patients with asymptomatic hypertension.
Dr. Souffront credits her personal and professional success to her parents and siblings. Her parents laid the foundation by demonstrating a strong work ethic and high expectations of their children. Dr. Souffront’s parents have been married for 49 years, and raised exceptional children, including her older brother, a surgeon in Brooklyn, and her younger sister an anesthesiologist in Los Angeles. Dr. Souffront’s younger brother unfortunately passed away in a car accident in 2004.
Dr. Souffront notes that her parents’ sacrifices motivated their children to make their parents proud. She explains, “family and education are highly valued in my family. My dad worked very long hours at the shop to provide for us so that we could have a good education. My mom also expected us to be well-rounded and cultured. You need to know not just books, but also participate in sports, scouts, and other activities that gave us structure and kept us busy as kids. And if we weren’t busy, we would be doing chores around the house.”
Her older brother taught her resilience, “he taught me to expect challenges as a part of life and to overcome them, to persevere.” From her younger sister, she learned the importance of charting one’s own path to do what you want to do and not to fear what other people think. She adds, “Do what works for you and what you’re passionate about.”
With her mother being a nurse, a grandmother who was a midwife and nurse, a godmother who was a nurse practitioner, and several cousins who were physicians, Dr. Souffront was exposed to the medical field at an early age. Dr. Souffront does not recall if or when she made a conscious decision to pursue nursing, but looking back she can see many reasons why she landed in the profession.
Becoming a nurse was just a natural progression, as a compassionate person who was also good at math and science, Dr. Souffront seemed destined for a future in nursing. She also wanted to do something that she would be remembered for, “People always remember how you made them feel. Nurses can be so significant in someone’s life when they’re at their most vulnerable, when they’re in the hospital, when they’re sick -- I knew I wanted to make a difference in that aspect.”
She was impressed by the immense impact that nurses have in patient care and generating new knowledge and science, how to impact policy, and how to improve overall health care delivery.
Dr. Souffront’s stellar nursing career is punctuated by a dual appointment as Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Faculty of the Institute for Health Equity Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Nursing Research and Innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System.
Dr. Souffront is the co-founder and co-Editor in Chief of Practical Implementation of Nursing Science (PINS), an open access, peer-reviewed journal for nurses engaged in clinical practice. The mission of PINS is to provide a forum for nurses working in clinical settings to rapidly disseminate findings from evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and research projects that facilitate translation of knowledge into practice. PINS also seeks to highlight diverse perspectives.
PINS, now in its second year of publication, fills a critical clinical gap that clinically enables nurses around the country to disseminate their innovative practices. She shared, “nurses don’t go through a research residency block like doctors. As a result, we often just don’t know how to do it. So as nurses we feel like we don’t have the time, we aren’t writing, we are intimidated, we find the process cumbersome.”
PINS keeps access to the online publication free and open to all, “We wanted to make sure the journal was affordable and geared towards the clinical nurse because we are with the patients all the time. We don’t want this crucial and timely information stuck behind a paywall or subscription,” adds Dr. Souffront.
Dr. Souffront’s career includes fellowships of the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Nursing. She was recognized as Nurse Researcher of the Year from the Greater New York Black Nurses Association in 2020 and in 2021, and recognized as one of the top ten nurse scientists across the nation to receive significant funding and leadership support from the Betty Irene and Gordon Moore Foundation. She received the 2024 Estelle Osborne Legacy Award honoring the first Black faculty member at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, for advancing equity in the profession.
Dr. Souffront is living proof that nontraditional nursing careers are possible. She emphasized, “nurses can be nurse practitioners, they can teach, they can do research and so much more.”
Mentors have played an important role in Dr. Souffront’s accomplishments. Some mentors she found organically and others she sought out. For individuals seeking a mentor, she recommends “don’t be afraid to send someone a cold email. And if you don’t get a response, send another email. Be proactive. And once you do connect, make the relationship meaningful by nurturing it, otherwise it won’t mature. Every strong relationship requires work on both sides.”
On mentorship, Dr. Souffront warns, “don’t make it transactional, like ‘I really want to meet you because you can help me do this.” She believes a good mentee builds up the friendship keeping their mentor in the loop on their personal and professional life. She suggests that mentees do what it takes to follow through on a mentor’s advice, “they are saying it for a reason, they are where they are for a reason, they are busy and giving you their valuable time, so be sure to act afterwards.”
Dr. Souffront has been married to her husband Ramon for 14 years. She and Ramon met when she was starting out as a PhD student. She notes he has been in the trenches with her ever since, “He was therefrom the start, with the craziness of the PhD, the post-doc and all the academic challenges along the way. He is so proud of me; he truly celebrates my successes. We have grown so much together.” The couple have four children together: a twelve-year-old daughter, nine-year-old twins (son and daughter), and a younger daughter who is two-and-a-half years old. Her children excel academically and are active in swimming, soccer and ice hockey.
Dr. Souffront feels immense gratitude when she sees her children being kind, inclusive, and resilient. Dr. Souffront says, “all of their little successes make me proud every single time.”
When asked what tips she has for other working parents, she quotes Shonda Rhimes’ 2014 commencement speech at Dartmouth, ‘How do you do it all?’ She responded “the answer is this: I don’t. Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means I am failing in another area of my life.” She relates to this sentiment, that often something has to give. “Maybe I successfully applied for a grant, but I also missed a lesson, a practice or an important game for one of my kids.” Dr. Souffront chooses to “recognize that nothing is ever perfect, and you can’t do it all. Be okay with dishes in the sink and toys all over the place, it’ll work its way out.”
Dr. Souffront recalls that there were many days in her early career where she went 24 hours without seeing her children. It was a challenging time, but she reminded herself that it was a temporary trade off and that she was making those sacrifices for a reason. “There were times I had to wake up early for a 12-hour shift in the city, and then wait overnight for hours to take the train home and that was just really, really hard for me.”
As an emergency nurse practitioner and researcher, Dr. Souffront is passionate about the issue of asymptomatic hypertension. While normal blood pressure measures at less than 120 over 80 asymptomatic hypertension is defined as high blood pressure that measures above normal, but the person experiencing it will not feel it because there are no obvious symptoms. “This is why we call high blood pressure the silent killer,” she explained.
In the emergency department, Dr. Souffront has witnessed too many patients showing up for treatment of an issue, usually unrelated to their high blood pressure, but then being discharged without their elevated blood pressure being adequately addressed. Sometimes this is a mistake on the emergency department’s behalf, because they assume the elevated blood pressure resulted from the stress and anxiety that can accompany an emergency department visit. Dr. Souffront believes that patients’ blood pressure should usually be measured twice during emergency visits, and if the patient’s numbers are still high after the second reading, the patient may already be experiencing chronic hypertension, a long term but treatable condition. Dr. Souffront adds, “about half the people in the world have high blood pressure, so even if you are not one of those people, it is very likely that someone you know or love is.”
The problem with not having adequate treatment or follow up of chronic hypertension in the emergency department is that it leads to worse outcomes for patients. When asked what advice she can give to help improve cardiovascular health, Dr. Souffront emphasized that lifestyle carries much more weight than the role of genes or DNA when it comes to having high blood pressure. She recommends stress reduction, getting good sleep, improving diet, regularly exercising, avoiding salt, and smoking cessation to optimize your heart health. Moreover, Dr. Souffront suggests that everyone go to their health care provider at least once per year to be screened for their blood pressure, cholesterol, and A1C (a marker for diabetes).
Over the years Dr. Souffront has seen many patients who are afraid of medication. She wants patients to know that medication improves outcomes and saves lives. “Medication may not be long term so don’t be afraid to start it. The longer you wait to start the medication the more stress you put on your heart, kidney and other organs. The more you put yourself at risk for a health crisis.”
Dr. Souffront is an ardent advocate for reducing the health disparities that she has witnessed in her career since her first hospital job at age 17. “The widespread disparities that I’ve observed in clinical practice were the catalyst for my research.”
African Americans seek care in the emergency department much more frequently than Whites. They also have poorer outcomes resulting from high blood pressure compared to other populations. According to Dr. Souffront, roughly 80% of visits to the emergency department are not acute. She has valiantly worked to improve outcomes for African American patients and for all patients who visit the emergency department. She is seeking to understand the comprehensive picture regarding access to quality care.
Dr. Souffront unwinds by spending quality time with her family. She is fortunate to be surrounded by foodies. “Growing up in a Jamaican household, I ate all the traditional things: banana and saltfish (I never liked ackee), jerk chicken, rice and peas, curry goat, stew peas and stew chicken.”
While her mother’s homemade cuisine is her favorite, she is also a fan of her husband’s cooking and says her sister is also an excellent cook. “As a family, we don’t eat out a lot. My husband is a great cook. I love his empanadas,” Dr. Souffront gushes. When it comes to wine, Dr. Souffront describes herself as a red person. “I like Cabernet Sauvignon and my usual go to is a Kendall Jackson.”