Abiola Salami, RN, BSN, FNP
Assistant Director of Nursing
NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services

Over the course of her career, Abiola Salami has worked in a variety of settings: hospital, nursing home, long-term home health, managed care and correctional facility.

“Nursing provides endless opportunities to not only help improve the quality of life of others but ensures that you keep growing as a person,” says Salami, the assistant director of nursing at NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services Horizon Juvenile Center.

Salami came to the profession circuitously. As a teenager growing up in Nigeria, she wanted to be a nurse but recalls her mother sternly telling her she couldn’t. Instead, she earned a degree in accounting. “It wasn’t until I arrived in America, after a whole career in accounting, that I began volunteering my weekends and free time in different units of the hospital and felt complete. Nursing was where I was supposed to be.”

Working for the city’s public health system, she draws deep satisfaction from caring for low-income and vulnerable New Yorkers, including those who are undocumented and might be too afraid to seek necessary health care. “I want to improve relationships and service, until it’s time to improve again,” she says. “A smile or a thank you is confirmation that I am doing something right.”

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