Health care workers recognized during Butler County Health Care Consortium event
FRANKLIN TWP — Health care is more than just charts and diagnoses, it’s about people, according to Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy.
It’s also about saving a patient, holding their hand when they are afraid and delivering care with dignity and compassion.
In recognition of health care workers for their efforts across the county with different backgrounds, the Butler County Health Care Consortium presented 33 local health care workers and students with awards during the Consortium’s eighth annual Health Care Worker Recognition event Wednesday, March 12, at The Atrium.
“I am here today to celebrate you and to tell you how much you mean to all of us for the work that you do,” Dandoy said as he addressed the crowd. “You all show up, day after day, putting in the effort, pushing boundaries and you all seem to manage it like you have your life totally together.”
Dandoy, the guest speaker of the event, told the workers that their jobs are not always glamorous and they are not always recognized in the way that they should be, as they show up everyday, navigating long shifts, late nights and early mornings.
“Your work doesn't just change individual lives,” Dandoy said. “It ripples out into families, neighborhoods and entire communities. When you save a life, you are not just giving someone a second chance, you are giving their loved ones the gift of more time. You are shaping futures and creating them whole.”
At the end of his speech, Dandoy went on to call the health care workers heroes and role models, who work together not just to treat illness, but to promote wellness.
Jan Rodgers and Kayla Price, co-chairs of the consortium, said the goal of the event is to recognize people in all aspects of health care who provide dedicated, passionate care to people in our community.
Rodgers said member organizations of the consortium such as Independence Health System and Lutheran SeniorLife, can nominate up to three people each for an award.
Price said organizations can nominate workers in many different aspects of health care such as direct care, non direct care, support and volunteers.
“I think what sets our recognition event apart from others is that it encompasses the support staff and volunteers,” Price said. “In our eyes dietary and housekeeping jobs are just as important, along with the nurses that work directly with patients.”
Mary Senge, a registered nurse with Lutheran SeniorLife, part of the Visiting Nurses Association was one of the workers honored during the event.
Senge, who has been a registered nurse for the past 29 years, recalled a time where she knew she made a difference in someone’s life when she helped get a patient to a hospital in time before it was too late.
“I got a letter from a wife of a patient saying she wanted to thank me because I saved her husband's life,” Senge said. “He was in a facility I was working at and I sent him to the hospital because he was bleeding. They then found out right away what was going on and she was just so happy we got him there in time.”
Another health care worker recognized during the event who is on the opposite end of the experience spectrum than Senge is Paige Snyder, who is a Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School student in the field of sports medicine.
Snyder said she got into sports medicine because she experienced a sports injury in high school and through her experience with physical therapy, she developed a passion for wanting to help people the way she was helped.
She currently also works as a primary care snack aide at Concordia at Cobot and is already making a difference in the patients that she sees.
“At work I remember holding a resident’s hand and they said me coming in makes their day better,” Snyder said. “That just pushes me to keep going, to go to work every single day and love it even more.”
