2024 Champions of Compassionate Care Honored by the Gold Foundation and AACN

Dr. Robert Pitts and Charles Yee recognized for their model physician-nurse partnership focused on providing compassionate care to underserved communities in New York City

WASHINGTON, DC, December 18, 2024 – The Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) are pleased to announce the 2024 winners of the AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award, which recognizes high-impact collaborations between nurses and physicians. This year’s recipients – Robert Pitts, MD and Charles Yee, BSN, AMB-BC – were selected as champions for compassionate care for the wide array of services provided to LGBTQIA+ patients through The Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. This distinguished honor will be presented at the 2025 Gold Humanism Summit, which will be held in Baltimore, Maryland on September 17-20, 2025.

“We are thrilled to be joining AACN in celebrating Dr. Pitts and Mr. Yee in this special award,” said Dr. Kathleen Reeves, MD, FAAP, Gold Foundation President and CEO. “The human connection is essential to the best care — both the connection with patients and the connection with healthcare colleagues. A physician-nurse partnership built on trust and respect creates healing relationships for everyone.”

Launched in 2023, this annual award is presented by the Gold Foundation and AACN to shine a spotlight on the need to foster care that places the interests, values, and dignity of all people at the core of every healthcare interaction. The award underscores the importance of physician-nurse collaboration to achieving optimal care outcomes and higher levels of patient satisfaction. This distinctive honor, which is awarded following a national call for nominations and a competitive selection process, highlights best practices for nursing and medical students to follow as they commence their careers and establish their own interprofessional collaborations. 

“When nurses, physicians, and other healthcare providers work together to build caring and collaborative relationships with patients, studies reveal a connection to smart healthcare decisions, better patient adherence with treatment plans, and less costly healthcare outcomes,” said Dr. Deborah Trautman, AACN President and Chief Executive Officer. “We applaud this year’s award recipients for their unwavering commitment to providing compassionate care, which is helping to ensure that underserved communities throughout NYC stay healthy and thriving.” 

Meet the 2024 Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award Recipients

Dr. Robert Pitts and Mr. Charles Yee are being recognized for their collaborative approach to humanistic care, creating a clinic environment of trust and respect for underserved New Yorkers. About one quarter of the Pride Health Center’s patients have experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days, and one quarter report being unable to pay rent in the last 3 months. Together, Dr. Pitts and Mr. Yee collaborate with a network of NYC clinics and community-based organizations to provide a wide array of critically needed services to combat healthcare disparities and socioeconomic inequities.  

Having earned his MD at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Robert Pitts is the Medical Director and Co-Founder of The Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, which serves the physical and mental health needs of all patients with dignity and respect. He is on the faculty of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Clinical Innovation. Dr. Pitts serves as a member of the Pride Council for Health + Hospitals, ensuring that comprehensive healthcare services are available to all those living in New York City. He is a proponent of equitable access to healthcare, including HIV treatment and prevention. He is the principal investigator for multiple research initiatives studying efficacy, safety, and implementation of HIV long-acting antiretrovirals among hard-to-reach populations. 
 
“This award and recognition motivate me to continue the important work and services we are providing to the most vulnerable populations of NYC,” said Dr. Pitts. “I'm a firm believer that everyone should have access to comprehensive healthcare. I'm honored to work at Bellevue/NYU and give back to communities that are most in need of gender-affirming services.”

Charles Yee is a registered nurse at The Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Born and raised in New York City, he completed his initial preparation as a nurse at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and his baccalaureate degree in nursing at the City University of New York. He is certified in Ambulatory Care Nursing and aspires to become a nurse practitioner in the future. Having practiced in community clinics serving patients with low socioeconomic status, unhoused individuals, and substance users, he learned first-hand the importance of HIV prevention and treatment and the health inequities faced by LGBTQIA+ people. Both Mr. Yee and Dr. Pitts model compassion and empathy for patients, each other, and the entire Pride Health Center team.

“I believe that everyone should have the opportunity and right to live a healthy life and have access to healthcare,” said Yee. “It is an honor to receive this award along with one of my favorite physicians, Dr. Pitts.”

To learn more about the AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award, including details on the inaugural 2023 award winners, click here.

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The Arnold P. Gold Foundation is the leading national nonprofit organization that champions humanism in healthcare. We empower experts, learners, and leaders to together create systems and cultures that support kind, safe, trustworthy care for all. The Gold Foundation is home of the White Coat Ceremony, Gold Humanism Honor Society, the Gold Humanism Summit, and more programs and tools that create and sustain the human connection in healthcare.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the national voice for academic nursing representing more than 875 schools of nursing nationwide. AACN establishes quality standards for nursing education, influences the nursing profession to improve health care, and promotes public support of baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, research and practice.