Inspired by Mom | MWPH boasts three sets of mother-daughter nurses

May 2025

It is almost a given that staff at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital say their co-workers are like family. But for these team members, their MWPH colleagues are actually family.

MWPH has not one, not two, but three nursing mother-daughter duos.

 

For Outpatient Clinical Staff Nurses Carolynn Gavin (RN, CPN) and Christine Hall (MSN, RN, CPN); Information Systems Applications Manager Heather Dewan (RN, BSN) and Registered Nurse Kayla Dewan; and Nurse Liaison Heather Dinunzio (RN, BSN, CPN) and Registered Nurse Marissa Dinunzio working at the hospital is a family affair.

 

While the Dewans and DiNunzios work in different departments, Gavin and Hall work side-by-side every day for the hospital’s Endocrinology and Diabetes Clinic.

 

For Gavin, deciding between her dual roles is simple, “I’m always in mom mode,” she said with a laugh. Gavin, who celebrates 30 years as a nurse at MWPH this year, readily admits that she’s harder on her daughter than her other co-workers, but Hall wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

“I know a lot of people would say, ‘Oh my gosh. I don’t know how you work with your mom,’ but I enjoy it because I have learned everything from her. Granted, I’ve gone to different units and seen different things. But how I carry out my care, how I act: Everything comes from her.”

 

Hall started as a patient care assistant at MWPH in 2011 and later became a registered nurse. Years later, she joined the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital and later cared for children at Sinai Hospital. She returned to MWPH in 2023 to work in the Outpatient Services Department.

 

“I value what she’s learned, and she is my go-to person,” Gavin said of her daughter. “One time in the inpatient setting, it was the middle of the night, and I had a child going bad, and before pushing the code button, my first thought was, ‘Chris! Chris! Come and help me.’”

Kayla Dewan’s connection to MWPH goes back a long way. She said some of her current co-workers met her as an infant.

 

Kayla Dewan, a quadruplet, was born premature. When she and her siblings were healthy enough, Heather Dewan, then a registered nurse at MWPH, brought them to the hospital for a visit.

“It’s like a full circle moment for them,” Kayla Dewan said of her co-workers today. “They’re like, ‘Wow! So now, I’m working next to you.”

 

Kayla Dewan got involved in health care at an early age, speaking to parents of other premature babies and giving them hope for recovery. But ultimately, her mom’s example inspired her career choice.

“It all started because of my mom,” said Kayla Dewan, who joined MWPH right out of nursing school about a year and a half ago. “She was such a shining light, caring for patients and families. It inspired me to do the same.”

 

Heather Dewan said her daughter’s decision to become a nurse has brought them closer.

 

“It was so exciting to have something to bond over,” Heather Dewan said. “Nursing school is hard. You need a buddy to study with, somebody you can use as a sounding board. She used me like that, and I was able to help her through nursing school. Not that she couldn’t do it on her own, but I was so happy.”

 

Even though she’s in Information Systems, Heather Dewan sees her daughter as an asset to her work, especially when upgrading software that affects the nursing units.

 

“She’s going to give me the truth. It is nice to have that kind of feedback, real valuable feedback,” Heather Dewan said.

 

When Heather DiNunzio found out her daughter was considering nursing. She was flattered but also practical.

 

“I had a little bit of hesitancy. It isn’t an easy profession, so I just wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting into,” said Heather DiNunzio, a nurse at MWPH for 31 years.

 

Marissa DiNunzio said she caught the nursing bug when she and her brother visited MWPH when she was about 10.

 

“We got to see what she did, and I was really inspired by that,” said Marissa DiNunzio, who joined MWPH after graduating from nursing school about a year ago.

 

Like the other women, the DiNunzios said nursing has brought them closer together. They occasionally share lunch in the cafeteria and compare notes about care.

 

All of the women said that nursing can be challenging sometimes, and they often bring strong emotions home. They value the built-in support system and someone in their personal lives who “really gets it.”

 

“It’s just so nice to have somebody to relate to when I come home. My mom understands all that I do on my shift,” Kayla Dewan said.

 

Hall agrees: “I have my husband. I have friends. But you don’t understand it unless you’re in it. I know she’s there for me, and her support is complete.”

 

Mt. Washington has a strong track record of producing medical mentors. But for these daughters, the best mentor just might be Mom.

 

Hall said of her mother: “I want to be like her because she is the calmest and most collected person I know in nursing. She’s who I need to be.”