CHI St. Vincent Heritage Week Award Winners

CHI St. Vincent celebrated Heritage Week with its annual co-worker awards presented for Leadership and Service Excellence. The following were selected as winners.

Sister Margaret Vincent Blandford Leadership Award

Joyce Diemer, RN, Nurse Manager, 3 East (Infirmary)

“Joyce makes me feel like part of her family. She truly cares about her nurses and when we have a problem she takes it seriously and resolves it any day, at any time. I remember one time in the last year that we were already short-staffed and the staffing office called to pull one of our nurses. This would have left us in a major bind, so Joyce went and worked on that unit herself until they could find a replacement to come in. She lives and dies by the policies and carries out our mission every day.”

Sister Teresa Joseph Babcock Service Excellence Award

Juanita Carr, Director of Volunteer Services (Infirmary)

“CHI St. Vincent is especially blessed to have such a quality, top notch employee as Juanita Carr responsible for the Auxiliary and Volunteers. She is “The Cream of the Crop.” From her beginning here, as a secretary to the Chaplaincy Department, to her position today, she has shown and demonstrated in all that she does that she has understood and practiced the quality of the core values that CHI St. Vincent wants in every co-worker. What I see as most outstanding has been her ability to “pick up the ball and run with it.”

Brent Reichenbach, Radiology Supervisor (North)

“Brent portrays all the qualities listed in the criteria for this award. His spirit of hospitality is heard throughout the hallways as he greets and welcomes patients in our facility. He models our core values consistently, always puts the patient first no matter what the situation is. He “gets it,” he understands that departments have to work together to achieve excellence and he is a shining role model for his staff, as well as other departments. Just as Sister Babcock, he is always positive, smiling and has a gentle demeanor that is respected by all.”

Cynthia Lasker, RN (Morrilton)

“Cynthia lives the model of hospitality of Sister Teresa Joseph. She lives our mission every day by providing compassionate care for patients and loving support for her co-workers. Many patients have commented tome that she comforts them when they are anxious and truly cares for them as a person. A patient was recently transferred to CHI St. Vincent Infirmary after spending several weeks at our hospital. Cynthia took up a collection from her co-workers to purchase a gift for him and then drove to the Infirmary for a visit. After finding out about this, I thanked her for caring so much for our patients. She simply said her mission does not stop at Morrilton and that she often follows up on her patients when they are transferred to other facilities. Cynthia’s compassion and commitment to our patients certainly makes her worthy of this award.”

Sister Dorothy Calhoun Service Excellence Award

Trish Nicholas, RN, Intensive Care Unit (Hot Springs)

“Trish is a great example of service excellence and one who displays the values of CHI St. Vincent. She is a clinical coach who is patient and nurturing to new co-workers. She explains things in great detail and has a way about her that is non-threatening and encouraging. She is always willing to work extra, help on extra projects, volunteer for unit based teams, and do anything else to improve quality of care and service delivery.”

Ray Pelton Leadership Award

Rhonda Mayfield, RN, Director of Perioperative Services (Hot Springs)

“I would like to recommend Rhonda Mayfield, RN CNOR, for the Ray Pelton Leadership Award. Rhonda has served in the capacity of Nurse Manager of the Operating Room the past several years and has made significant changes in the overall performance and staff morale in this area. She is always willing to take on a challenge and steps up to assist when needed. Following the Core Values of Reverence, Integrity, Compassion and Excellence, I feel Rhonda is very deserving of the award.”

Click here to see video interviews of all winners.

Click here to see more photos from the event.