Coming to Care through Emergency

Nomination Summary

Janis has been working with families living in difficult life circumstances for the past seven years. She is empathetic regarding their life challenges and empowers them by helping them utilize their strengths. She has demonstrated such qualities as enthusiasm, non-judgmental approach, and empathy with her clients on a one-one basis as well as in group settings. A co-worker said she easily “puts herself in the clients’ shoes” and that this trait results in the development of strong relationships with her clients and community partners. Her co-workers also describe her understanding and caring to them also enhancing the team’s capacity to serve the community. Janis always goes the “extra mile” to ensure her clients receive the best possible service.

Her manager describes her as being successful in taking on many challenges in her role especially in facilitating provincial training for her colleagues and that she has demonstrated leadership and passion in Public Health.

Janis is a good listener and is always willing to lend a helping hand. With those qualities, she is a natural leader who is respected and admired by her clients, community partners and co-workers. Janis is a deserving recipient of the Daisy Award for various reasons… the main one being her ability to demonstrate a high level of caring for the families she serves.

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Patty Henley, nurse for 33 years at Eastern Shore Memorial Hospital, was presented with the Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses this fall for her outstanding performance as an emergency nurse.

During a shift at the hospital’s Outpatient/Emergency Department in September, Patty received word that a ship had been re-routed into in the harbour with a quarantined ill sailor on board who required immediate medical attention. Recognizing that crews travel from all over the world, Patty was concerned about contagious or infectious disease. She alerted the infection control department to protect the hospital, the nursing home, and the community as a whole.

Daphne Murray, impressed with the nurse’s actions, nominated her as an extraordinary nurse. Henley is the first emergency nurse in Canada to receive the award.

In her remarks, made of behalf of the District Nursing Advisory Council, Daphne shared, “No technology in health care replaces the critical thinking of a human mind, the caring of a human soul, the proficiency and skill of a human hand and the warmth of a human heart in healing the sick and the injured. Patty, you consistently demonstrate leadership, knowledge, courage, advocacy and critical thinking. Those of us who are around you can feel your compassion for not only your patients and colleagues, but for your community as well…It is always front and centre in all you do.”

Henley was also recognized for her sensitive mentoring of newly graduated and student nurses.
Humbled by their words, in accepting the award, Henley stated, “I am mindful that I am part of a team who strives to provide excellence in patient care. There was a whole team helping me.”

Congratulations, Patty! We’re thrilled that you are part of the Capital Health team.

On Friday, April 17, 2009, Capital Health officially took possession of the new Emergency Department space at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. That means the construction site no longer belongs to the contractor, it belongs to us, Capital Health. That doesn’t mean it’s ready to move into. There’s still work to be done to prepare the space and still planning to be done.

This newsletter gives some of the details on what we know now about how the planning and about how the working processes in the new department will be different.

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