Through our compassionate and talented people, we live out our mission each and every day–in both small gestures and large moments. We’re recognizing 11 team members as April Employees of the Month for practicing one or more of our values as they carry out our mission.
Employee of the Month recognizes the people you love to work with. The winners exhibit Kettering Health’s Standards of Behavior, live out our values, and demonstrate the healing presence practices outlined in Called to Care.
Thank you for impacting the lives of those in our community by fulfilling our mission. Our work wouldn’t be possible without you!
Continue reading to see the nomination stories for our April Employees of the Month.
“Kayla is a very caring person and shows great caring and compassion for the patients. She is very respectful of the patients and her co-workers. Kayla has a very calming effect on those around her. Even when it gets very hectic and lots of things are happening at once, and she has a lot on her plate when she is charge, she remains calm which helps others to be calm.”
“Kayla is an excellent charge nurse and rules the unit with compassion and connection. She is approachable to her team and a great patient advocate. She is organized and handles challenging situations patients have with her team. She organizes the unit to flow seamlessly and supports her peers with medications, discharges, and admissions. She is calm in any storm.”
“A patient called to express her gratitude for such a positive experience with Mark. The patient has mobility issues and was visiting the hospital for a multi-day exam during inclement weather. Even though Mark was working by himself, he assisted the patient through the hospital and helped her get lunch in the cafeteria. When the patient voiced concerns of returning to the hospital after a snowstorm, Mark created an innovative solution that would ensure the patient wouldn’t have to miss care and restart the exam. With his commitment to quality care, the patient was able to complete the test. The patient was especially thankful for the comfort she felt while in Mark’s care. Though this is just one example, there are many stories like this. Mark exemplifies the mentality of “every patient, every time.” Mark uses every day as an opportunity to improve himself, our department, and the lives of those in our community. He serves as a role model for his positive attitude and helps inspire those around him to be their best. He is paramount to making each day feel not only productive, but fulfilling.”
“Mark is a wonderful choice for employee of the month. He started as a contract employee from out of state and fell in love with the Dayton community. After accepting a full time position with Kettering Health Dayton, Mark and his wife joined our community. Since day one, Mark has received compliments from his co-workers for jumping in to help wherever needed. He always puts patients first, helping them understand exams and providing compassion and comfort to help his patients get through long and challenging exams. Mark has improved processes at KH Dayton and Washington Township. He created an automatic process for the dose disposal checklist in NMIS software to reduce errors in documentation. He gets shout outs from co-workers regularly in monthly rounding. Mark is frequently mentioned on PG surveys. Mark recently had a Great Catch that prevented a patient from receiving a costly exam.”
“Emily is a strong, dependable asset on our team. She has stepped up to the plate multiple times to provide leadership, education, and any type of help she possibly can when needed. Emily’s strength in being a leader is someone that I look up to and strive to be like one day as a nurse myself. Emily’s kindness, compassion, and advocacy is something that all patients notice and comment on every shift I work with her.
Emily always strives to go above and beyond for everyone from employees in the network, staff on shift for the day, EMS, law enforcement, and all patients. Emily’s ability to be kind and caring offers all of our patients a calming sense of feeling safe and cared for. Emily is a strong leader within our department, and is always offering up new ways to educate staff to keep them up to date on the nursing process. I truly feel Emily is in this profession because she is one of the most kindhearted, caring, and professional nurses I have ever met. I hope one day I can live up to, and be the type of nurse, friend, leader, and educator that she is.”
“Emily is an awesome nurse. She takes great care of her patients and their families. She is always willing to step in and help a fellow co-worker whenever needed. She is a great resource for staff members and currently switched roles from CNL to our NPDS.”
“Krin is always caring, encouraging, and quick to be a team player! I have always thought how amazing Krin is, and today was just another example in the books. Another therapist and I walked past a room of an agitated patient who was trying to stand from the chair, pulled his drink which flooded the floor, and was about to fall. The physical therapist and I were able to quickly get the patient to safely sit back down, and Krin was quick to follow us. This wasn’t even her patient, and yet she not only responded to the chair alarm, but she also helped us mop up the floor. When other staff members walked past the room seeing the patient upset, she was being a part of the team trying to keep the patient safe and calm him down.
Krin is known as an AMAZING nurse on 4 Main by the Therapy department. When I mentioned this situation to several members of the Therapy team, they all mentioned how wonderful Krin is. She is quick to respond to her patients, cares for her patients, and is always willing to be a team player for both the nursing and therapy staff. She is someone we can always count on and know will have the patients best interests in mind even if it makes her day longer or more challenging. Krin is someone you can always expect a smile from even if it’s been a long, challenging day for her. I’m thankful God brought Krin to Kettering Health Hamilton and has blessed our patients with her as a nurse!”
“Mike Schairbaum is the epitome of a teammate. Mike is always a positive force in the department but has recently gone above and beyond to help out his co-team lead. Mike has not only worked extra hours but given up his free time to help his teammate, Chris, return to work after a near-fatal accident.
When Chris came back from his most recent surgery, the transition to UKG Dimensions had occurred. One of Chris’ responsibilities as co-team lead is time and attendance.
The first payroll that Mike helped Chris with, he met Chris at work at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday to show him the ropes. Mike came back to work, on his own time, volunteering without being asked, five hours after his shift had ended. The second payroll, Mike did the same thing. Both times, Mike volunteered to do this, to help Chris get back his time and attendance role in the new environment.
While Chris was off initially after his accident, Mike stepped in and did all of the team lead duties by himself, always with a smile. Mike managed all of the time and attendance, vacations, and meetings. His responsibility doubled during that time and he was genuinely glad to help.
Mike added hours of patient care during Chris’ absence to accommodate stat patients, always putting patient care first and worked hard to get patients seen.
Outpatient therapy has had a number of big changes. Mike has kept a level head, a positive outlook, and helped lead his team successfully through this change–all in quarter one of 2023.
When Chris was ready to be discharged from the hospital after his accident, our office had closed for the afternoon due to snow. Mike volunteered, along with Garrett Sudimacks, to take Chris home. Chris needed a car he could get into, and the weather was treacherous. Mike and Garrett gave Chris and his family peace of mind by being willing, during a snow storm, to get him home safely.
Mike has helped re-orient Chris to the department; he is patient, kind, and giving of himself to ensure the success of his teammate. Our department is lucky to have Mike.
Mike is a role model for the team members that report to him as well as those that he reports to! Mike puts the company first, always. Mike’s smile and positivity is infectious. Mike’s care and compassion to help Chris return to work is a model for all of us.”
“Becky had a day off scheduled months ago, when I was scheduled to work. The day before she was scheduled to be out, she found out who our float was going to be, reached out to her on Microsoft Teams to brief her on our office, and running me in general. She printed out my schedule, highlighted and color-coordinated patients with forms they would need to fill out like PHQ, HRA, etc., and had them all ready to go in a packet for her in the morning. She took the initiative all on her own to set our float up for success. She checked with me at the end of the day before she left to see if there was anything else that needed included.
These actions just blew my mind. She is so thoughtful to look at the big picture and truly cares about her job. I’m sure this is out of the norm for the float to receive this kind of information, especially before showing up to her shift that day. She is a blessing to our team, and represents the true definition of teamwork.”
“Tyrell has been a God send for us here at Miamisburg as he jumped into his role as supervisor with both feet and has not stopped running ever since. He has embraced the morning huddle information and has the notes typed up so both the second and third shift coordinators can easily pass the same information along to staff. He engages the staff during his huddles by asking them questions as to how they will make a difference on the units that day and what they are thankful for. He was instrumental in getting all the training documents to all staff and into the files, which was a big task for all our leaders. He makes rounds with staff and patients daily, has contact with nurses on the units, and has developed a great working relationship with them.
Tyrell has worked to do follow-through and follow-up with staff in both training and action plan items that may arise. You can feel his compassion for staff to learn and grow as he talks to them. That is a skill that a lot of people lack, but he is nailing it!
You can see his deep faith come out as he talks to staff as he is always talking about giving people grace and understanding. He is very passionate about things being done properly, but yet is a very humble man. From a manager point of view, I could not ask for a better person to have been there to fill in when the position was vacant. He has taken the lead in so many projects, is hungry for new learning experiences, truly cares about his staff, has taken on committees and presented data to them, runs the bed board like a professional, and has kept our turnaround time down to one of the lowest in the network. He has also tackled the training for all new staff on their first couple of days, takes and asks for suggestions for improvement, and has made me so proud of his growth and compassion. This young man will do great things in his career, and we are truly blessed to have him on our team.”
“Logan ALWAYS has a helping hand. I was having a busy night and he jumped right in with no hesitation and even did peri care on a patient that had a bowel movement and took them to CT for me so I could get caught up. He is very easy to talk to and always asking if we need help. He never questions when I ask for help. He has inserted IV’s for me and collected blood work on patients that I could not get. He is a prime example of what a supervisor should be. We have such great TEAMWORK on night shift and he sets the tone. Logan positively impacts the staff by helping out and creating a TEAMWORK environment. It puts my mind at ease when I work with him.”
“Logan has been instrumental in creating orientation packets for new supervisors, collects data for leadership, and is a constant voice for patients and staff. He keeps leadership informed of any issues that arise on either campus and troubleshoots what he can so as to not wake us up at 2 a.m.!”
“Mary is one of our newer graduate nurses and I want to recognize her for always taking such great care of her patients. One patient recently specifically called me after she was discharged from Med-Surg for a recent shoulder surgery. The patient said Mary was an “Earth Angel.” She described a situation in the hospital where she had some unexpected and increased bleeding from her shoulder surgery and while the ortho resident ran out of the room to get supplies to take care of the bleeding, Mary held the patient’s hand, stayed calm, and “renewed my faith in the medical profession.” This patient was so impressed by Mary’s professionalism and exceptional care that I feel she surely deserves the Employee of the Month recognition.
Mary always is the first to step in and help others answer call lights and also spends those “extra” minutes with her patients each shift connecting with them and ensuring they receive the safest and highest quality of care. We are so proud to have Mary on our team!”
“She deserves it! I hope she is the chosen winner. She is certainly an asset to our team! 😊”
“Debbie is always so willing to help answer my questions and questions for the leaders I support. She goes above and beyond helping our leaders and myself making sure our payroll process is correct or gets the attention it needs to be corrected. I have never heard her say, “I don’t know” or “I can’t help.” She always responds with, “Yes I can help!” Debbie lives the mission and values of Kettering Health and I think she deserves recognition for the incredible work she does! Debbie ensures those who care for our patients have correct pay and assists the leaders making sure we don’t have any issues from the payroll side. Having her on our team puts minds at ease knowing that we have positive force working for us behind the scenes!”
“Debbie goes above and beyond daily. Her dedication extends to her internal HR team as well. She is always willing to step in to assist with anything that needs to get done to ensure pay is complete and successful each period. She is always willing to step forward to lend a hand. If Debbie doesn’t have the answer to a question or a problem, she will do the necessary research to ensure the matter is handled and that it is timely. Her caring and compassionate attitude is always displayed no matter how difficult someone or the situation may be. She truly lives the mission and values of Kettering Health.”
“I would like to nominate Robert, who has been behind the scenes yet instrumental in patient safety! Excel is a complicated program for many people, including me, so when I was introduced to an Excel spreadsheet with tabs, links, and graphs, I was immediately impressed! This meticulous spreadsheet was created a few years ago by Robert, a skilled tradesman for Soin Medical Center and Kettering Health Greene Memorial, and originated as a tool to be used for Environment of Care (EOC) rounds. EOC, as we call them, is a multidisciplinary team that evaluates our inpatient and outpatient areas to ensure patient safety and that our facilities stay survey ready. This spreadsheet is now used at Hamilton, Dayton, and Washington Township. As Accreditation and Compliance moved into mock survey mode this past fall, we decided to approach Robert and see if we could utilize this tool as a way to communicate the opportunities for improvement discovered during our mock surveys. Robert has been very responsive and has spent long periods of his workday assisting me in modifying what he had built to suit our mock survey needs. He has since perfected a new mock survey tool that has been used at Hamilton, Dayton, Washington Township, Main Campus, Miamisburg, and Greene.
Our patients will never know that our system has relied on a spreadsheet to communicate between departments to improve their safety on a weekly or annual basis. Most leaders will never know who it was that spent hours learning Excel to build this spreadsheet so that we could have a workable list of opportunities and way to show accountability. The impact that this organizational and communicative tool has had on keeping leadership aware of even the most trivial opportunity for improvement is saving lives. Thank you Robert, for your expertise, generosity with your time, and being a team player!”