Brent Barnett Recognized as Service Hero at Infirmary

Congratulations to Brent Barnett for being recognized as a Service Hero at the Infirmary. Read a snip from his nomination below:

I would like to take a moment to call out a true service hero. When we think of a “service hero” in the traditional sense, we think of those who perform exceptional clinical feats and acts of compassion.  The nature of the work we do requires us to see our patients and guests under tremendous stress, this stress causes occasional “boil over” that results in acting out and sometimes violent behaviors.  Security officer Brent Barnett (from weekends) is outstanding. I have seen him de-escalate combative visitors and even stand firm for those who sought to cause harm to others.

Recently we had a matriarch of a large family pass away in CCU.  The family was very distraught and began to become unruly.  I (house sup) called Brent and the team and put him on notice that the scenario was volatile. When a young male family member became hostile and violent, Brent stepped in and in a calm, Clint Eastwood-esque voice – gave direction.  The family member continued to hurl obscenities, but Brent remained calm and stood his ground while the family member continued to curse and act out…mind you the family member  migrated toward the door of the CCU and out of the facility-while stating he wanted to fight, etc.  I call this, the Brent effect (smile).

Just today, I found myself in a scenario where I had a family member in a near code blue situation. Brent was right there stabilizing the gentleman’s arm so an IV could be inserted to treat life threatening hypoglycemia.

Weekend after weekend, I see Brent get cursed, his life threatened, etc. and yet he maintains a level of calm that I have not seen in many people. I have become convinced that this is because Brent is a man of faith and great ability. He possesses a unique ability to use purposeful communication punctuated with intentional silence to de-escalate and set expectations.

As a house supervisor, I feel a lot safer knowing Brent is at work.   There as an old saying, “you don’t send sheep to deal with a wolf,” I am glad to have Brent as a shepherd on the weekends overseeing our campus.

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