Awards honor those who embody service
The latest Credo Award and Five Pillar Leader Award winners were announced at last week’s Winter Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly at Langford Auditorium.
Devin Bender
Melinda Caudill
Katie Gentry
Joann Jenkins
The Credo Award is given to staff and faculty who exemplify the Medical Center's standards for service and all-around professionalism.
Credo Awards went to Devin Bender, a support specialist in the Emergency Department; Melinda Caudill, a medical technologist II in the Virology Laboratory; and Katie Gentry, a Child Life specialist.
Bender’s nomination read in part, “He has the ability to put family members at ease during a stressful ED visit. When Devin requests a vacation day, he never asks for a Monday off. Devin states, ‘The ED is too busy on Mondays and I have to make sure they have everything they need to take care of patients.’ … Devin also helped us achieve above 90 percent in hand hygiene compliance by reminding team members to wash their hands.”
Caudill’s nomination read, “Melinda came to the assistance of a mother who screamed when her eight-year-old daughter began choking on her lunch. This occurred outside the cafeteria on the plaza. Melinda expertly performed the Heimlich maneuver on the child, immediately expelling the food.
“On the same day, while Melinda was at lunch outside the cafeteria, an elderly wheelchair-bound woman yelled for help with her service dog.
“The dog had had an ‘accident’ on the terrace and the woman was not able to clean it up due to her disability. Melinda immediately took the plastic bags the woman provided and cleaned up after the dog. The woman told Melinda that in times past when the same kind of thing had happened, people were very reluctant to help her.”
Gentry’s nomination read in part, “Katie is a strong advocate for the best possible care. Healing is not only the medicine, the surgery or procedure; Katie demonstrates the credo every day in the traditional ways, but through special events she communicates the credo to a child in a way that only a child can understand.”
Joann Jenkins, assistant director of medical reimbursement with the Vanderbilt Medical Group Business Office, received the Five Pillar Leader Award, which is given to staff and faculty who exemplify Medical Center leadership standards.
Jenkins’ nomination read in part, “She has unofficially been dubbed Mighty Mouse by her team because she is a very petite woman with the inner strength of a superhero. She has the type of personal strength that, if she were a character in that old fairy tale ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’ she would be the person to tell the emperor he has no clothes. … In her leadership method, she is not just training us to do our present job, but challenging us to grow into tomorrow’s leaders.”
The Credo Award and Five Pillar Leader Award are conferred every three months.
To nominate someone for either award, please complete a nomination form on the elevate website.