Patient Care Award Recipient

November's Patient Care Award recipient is Shanna Medeiros. Shanna was nominated by Tina Wedel, R.N., who works in Ambulatory Care/PACU. Her nomination reads:

"Recently Meade County had a multiple car accident. The victims were brought to SWMC. This included a family of a grandmother, mother, father and several children. The mother did not survive, the grandmother was seriously injured and two of the boys suffered broken bones. Both of the boys, age 9 and 12, underwent surgery. Shanna helped them in Recovery and PACU. The next day she bought the boys a pair of pajamas and brought them to the hospital. Shanna said both of them were a little modest with the hospital gowns and she wanted to make them feel better. Shanna is always concerned and helping people."

Shanna began working at Southwest Medical Center 26 years ago as a nurse's aide. After 6 months on the floor she transferred to OR and has been an OR Scheduler ever since. While her primary responsibility is scheduling surgeries, she also communicates with physician offices and hospital departments on a daily basis, and coordinates with Ambulatory, OR, and Holding on a moment by moment basis in order to keep things in the department running smoothly. Aside from her full time job, Shanna works in Recovery one day a week and one weekend a month. This is where she enjoys work the most because of the patient contact.

Shanna has seen a lot of changes take place during her 26 years at the hospital. "The hospital has advanced from small surgeries to diagnostic laparoscopies and advanced laparoscopic procedures. There have been so many technological changes with scopes, monitoring systems, etc. Scheduling used to be done from a three ring binder and now it is done on the computer. It is phenomenal to see where we are now compared to when I started 26 years ago."

Born in Perryton, Shanna spent much of her youth in Texas and Oklahoma. She has lived in Liberal for almost ten years. She and her husband, Danny, have been married for five years. Danny has 2 daughters and 1 son and Shanna has 1 daughter. Together they enjoy 6 grandchildren. When Shanna is not working she enjoys traveling and water sports, especially scuba diving. Her favorite places to scuba dive are the Cayman Islands and Cozumel.

When asked if she was surprised by receiving a patient care award she replied, "Yes, very surprised. The things I do for others are private and I don't do them for recognition. The boys that had been in the accident touched my heart. They had just lost their mother. I wanted to do something for them."

Shanna said that she recently visited with a person that she took care of 25 years ago. He was visiting a relative in the hospital and recognized Shanna. He thanked her for taking care of him many years ago. Shanna was somewhat surprised that he recognized her. He said, "I'll never forget your face." Thank you, Shanna, for the way you care for patients at SWMC and for your tender heart and compassion.

Congratulations on receiving this award.