Midwifery Student Profile: Sofia Rosenberg-Klainberg
DNP ’24
I believe that nursing education is an investment in our future nurses and nurse practitioners, allowing us to arm them to address the many vast inequities in our health care system.
Please tell us a bit about yourself; where are you from, and what do you like to do in your spare time?
I grew up outside of Boston and moved to New York City 10 years ago to attend Barnard College. The majority of my family lives in the area, so staying here has been an easy decision. I love to garden, and have been growing tropical plants inside my apartment as well as native pollinator plants and veggies on my balcony. I am also a lifelong vegetarian and love traveling and trying plant-based versions of traditional dishes wherever I am.
Why did you decide to pursue nursing, and why did you choose Columbia?
You can’t spend more than five minutes in my grandmother’s house without her phone ringing. As the matriarch of our extended family and a leader in her work, there is always someone calling to pick her brain about a local issue, ask for advice, or just see how she’s doing. Restaurant meals invariably end with her encouraging the waitress to apply to nursing school, and doctor’s appointments with her discussing the nurse’s goals to pursue their NP, EdD, or PhD. I’ve always known that my grandma is special, but it wasn’t until my twenties that I realized how her career in nursing and her devotion to educating, encouraging, and advocating for members of her community are intrinsically intertwined.
I became a nurse because I wanted to be a nurse midwife, and to grow myself into the same academic and community leader that my grandmother is. In deciding my career path I realized that my drive to promote sexual and reproductive health literacy, equitable birth care, and access to care for queer patients aligns perfectly with the role of the nurse midwife. I chose to attend Columbia for the passionate faculty, unmatched resources, and academic community. My time at Columbia Nursing has yielded each of those and more, and I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
What are you passionate about, and how has being a student at Columbia Nursing allowed you to follow that passion?
I believe that nursing education is an investment in our future nurses and nurse practitioners, allowing us to arm them to address the many vast inequities in our health care system. As a student at Columbia Nursing I have been fortunate enough to be shaped by the experience and expertise of my faculty, and find my own passion for teaching.
Over my two years of working at Columbia Nursing as a teaching assistant (TA), I have found how much I enjoy teaching foundational topics like pharmacology, physiology, and pathophysiology, and how important these are to understanding the care we provide to our patients. The support of the department helped me in my role as the nursing school’s Lead Teaching Fellow for the 2023-2024 Academic Year. This experience has nurtured my passion for nursing education and research, and has given me the opportunity to address the training and support needs of other TAs. I was also supported by my wonderful advisor, Associate Professor Adena Bargad, in marrying my passions for reproductive health and teaching skills to future providers in my DNP project. Our work focuses on evaluating a new curricular model for teaching student providers to elicit trauma-informed sexual and reproductive health histories and I am excited to incorporate our findings into future curricular changes.
Do you have a favorite memory of your time at Columbia Nursing?
I was lucky to spend my MDE integration in the Dominican Republic at Clínica de Familia in La Romana with my amazing classmate, Paola Sanchez. I take great pride in the work we did together, evaluating the clinic’s provision of free care to “key” populations including people with HIV, MSM, LGBT youth, and sex workers, to identify potential areas of improvement for use of resources, provision of health care, patient retention, and health promotion. As outside observers conducting this quality improvement work we were able to make suggestions that were implemented in the clinic, and I learned an immense amount about providing care in a setting vastly different to what I was used to. My favorite memories were exploring La Romana and the surrounding towns. We spent weekends taking gua guas (a hop-on hop-off form of public transportation, usually a crowded van or bus) to the beach and getting to meet people outside of health care who wanted to chat with us about why we were in DR and share their food and culture.
What are your next steps after graduation?
After graduation I’ll be preparing for my board exam and looking for a full-time midwifery job! I am hopeful to find a hospital with strong mentorship where I can provide full scope midwifery care including birth, abortion, and well person care.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A shenere un besere velt (a more beautiful and better world) is possible: hire more midwives and listen to them!