Capital Region Medical Center administrators and staff paused for a moment Wednesday to take a breath, reflect on the previous year and enjoy some barbecue.
The hospital hosted an employee picnic, catered by Sweet Smoke BBQ.
The event, honoring CRMC's employees, coincided with overlapping weeks recognizing health care workers - National Nurses Week, which ended Wednesday, and National Hospital Week, which ends Saturday, saaid Lindsay Huhman, CRMC director of public relations and marketing.
On Monday, the hospital recognized six employees with CRMC Excellence in Nursing Awards.
"These nurses reflect attributes that are necessary to be exceptional in nursing - teamwork, compassion, respect, integrity and a strong desire to heal," Huhman said in a news release. "They are also the epitome of 'Better.' Every day."
Recipients on Monday were Chelsea Bickell, Capital Region Physicians-Women's Health; Autumn Brandt, Emergency Department; Jan Faulconer, Employee Health; Paula Heiskell, Medical/Surgical Unit; Nikki Troesser, Capital Region Physicians-Pediatrics; and Justin Weislocher, Intensive Care Unit.
Brandt's nomination letter pointed out she promotes teamwork in the emergency department, which leads to success. It said her actions align with CRMC's culture - "Better. Every day."
"It is nightly I see the nurses on the team going above and beyond to help each other and distribute the workload," the nomination said. "Given these nurses are nearly all fairly new, Autumn's outstanding leadership is shaping these young nurses and keeping them excited about patient care and learning."
Faulconer met head-on a wave of COVID-19 symptoms appearing in CRMC staff, her nomination letter said.
"She remained calm, helpful and steadfast as employees began coming to her with their symptoms related to COVID-19 early on. She quickly established protocols on how to best get employees tested timely, and also provide safety of everyone involved," the letter said.
She established a triage phone system, in which human resources staff helped field voicemails.
"Jan would continue to meet each of these employees in person to test and give guidance, while also providing details back to managers and leaders as needed," the letter said.
Weislocher's nomination letter recognized he had advanced and became a nurse while on the job at CRMC, which gave him a diverse background from which to pull. He started as a monitor technician, then became an ICU weekend unit clerk (responsible for performing a variety of administrative, clerical and clinical activities).
During the pandemic, "Justin took it upon himself to keep the ICU up to date on advancing knowledge and the daily changes in policies and practice," his nomination letter said. "He took care of most of the long-term ventilated patients in the ICU. He would spend hours in the room, stabilizing patients with limited help from the rest of the unit due to the separation of isolation patients."
He also kept patients' families educated and up-to-date on their loved ones. He helped them stay connected with loved ones through FaceTime and phone calls.
CRMC extended deep gratitude to the nurses, Huhman said in the release, for their ongoing dedication to their patients.
During its annual picnic last year, the hospital did box lunches, Huhman said Wednesday. This year's event was a picnic, but it looked a little bit different, she continued.
The hospital normally hosts the event in its "breezeway," which separates the CRMC Physicians building from older sections of the hospital. Hospital staff and health care providers walked through the breezeway, spoke with old friends, picked up portions of barbecued pork and turkey, and left with their lunches.
Meals were to be provided Wednesday at the Southwest Avenue location. Night shift personnel need not worry about missing the picnic, Huhman said. Before the caterer left, they were to box up dinners for the next shift.
"We'll have a team that comes in on the weekend, and we'll deliver to the weekend shift as well," Huhman said. "So everybody can take part in it."
CRMC will cater meals for clinics in outlying communities, she said. They would likely receive meals from a local vendor.
The hospital has clinics in California, Eldon, Linn, Owensville and Versailles, she added.
"They'll kind of do that on their own for their employees," she said.
Janet Weckenborg, vice president of operations, was among those administrators who stood on the picnic serving line, interacting with hospital employees.
"We're looking back on a year that was especially challenging," Weckenborg said. "The pandemic was an unusual year for our community and the nation, but especially for caregivers, who had to step up to a new challenge we hadn't faced before."
CRMC was especially proud to serve the community, she said. And be a place for people to look to for continuity of care and advice about how to approach the pandemic.
"We wanted to be the voice of health care, to provide services, and also to provide information for them," Weckenborg said.
The hospital wanted to get community members to understand why they should wear masks and maintain social distancing, she said. And, it wanted employees to be available to provide care for those who contracted the disease.
As the pandemic progressed, it offered testing and later became a provider of vaccination clinics.
"You look through the (food) line and you see someone from the lab. We set up all this testing," Weckenborg said. "We didn't have testing for this disease 15 months ago. Now we can test it, and turn that testing around in 17 minutes in our own lab here."