Christy Spalink

Christy Spalink is a clinical assistant professor. She is double board certified as an acute care and hospice and palliative care nurse practitioner and is an Oncology Certified Nurse. Prof. Spalink earned her DNP from NYU Meyers in 2020 and her MSN in 2011. She obtained her BSN in 2004 from Calvin University. Dr. Spalink conducted her DNP project at NYU Langone Health Perlmutter Cancer Center where she created an evidence-based toolkit for electronic health record palliative care referrals in the outpatient oncology setting to improve equitable access to palliative care services and comply with the NCCN Palliative Care Guidelines.

Prof. Spalink’s diverse clinical, education, and leadership experience enable her to approach healthcare challenges from numerous perspectives, creating coalitions of support to build sustainable solutions for populations and medical centers. In her previous role as Administrative Director of Clinical Operations at NYU Langone Health Perlmutter Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office Prof. Spalink reduced the annual staff turnover rate from 34.4% to 24.6%, increased clinical employee retention from 59.3% to 77.1%, and increased the internal employee promotion rate from 2.9% to 39.9% while maintaining a vacancy rate of 14.7% and building the clinical department from 40 positions in 2019 to 65 in 2022. She received an abstract award through AACI-CRI for this work (2023). She did this by creating and implementing an evidence-based orientation and training curriculum and by cultivating a psychologically safe and collaborative culture through the implementation of High Reliability practices and communication. During her tenure in nursing clinical leadership all internal and external audits were passed, and clinical audit findings were reduced by 80%. Prof. Spalink created several evidence-based, financially sustainable patient programs that increased diverse patient access to complex early-phase clinical trials, including an inpatient early phase oncology clinical trial program and an outpatient solid tumor cellular therapy program. During her time in the Neurology Department at NYU Langone Prof. Spalink contributed to the research and clinical practice advancements for several rare autonomic diseases. Prof. Spalink designed, obtained funding for, and implemented a clinical program to provide cognitive behavioral therapy via telemedicine for patients with a rare neurodegenerative disease resulting in blindness and social isolation to improve anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. She collaborated with an expert team of clinicians and researchers to publish the first respiratory guidelines for Familial Dysautonomia supporting evidence-based practice respiratory care for children and adults and spoke internationally to support training and awareness.

In her current clinical practice Prof. Spalink provides advanced practice nursing care for adults with urgent complications of cancer and its treatment. Her clinical areas of interest include acute care, neurology, oncology, and clinical trials nursing practice and operations.