Tina Alvis was recently awarded AdventHealth Gordon’s prestigious Service Standard Award.
This special award was created by members of the hospital’s Employee Engagement Committee to recognize employees who go above and beyond the call of duty on a regular basis. It is awarded monthly to deserving employees selected by the hospital’s directors.
Alvis, who works in the environmental services department at AdventHealth Gordon, was nominated by a coworker with the following words: “Last week, we had a patient who was going home to live with a family member. The physician had ordered for him to go home on hospice, but he had no insurance, his clothing was soiled and his family member who he would be living with was recently released from the hospital after a stroke, and he had no other family to help assist him.
“He told me he wanted to go home with clean clothes and asked if we could wash them for him. I told him I would find out. I walked out of the room and saw three environmental services team members whom were very helpful to me. I asked them if we had a washing machine to wash a patient's clothing in. They told me to call their director, Nick, to assist me and that they do have a washing machine that they might be able to use for the patient’s clothes. I first want to thank these team members. I am so grateful for them and the job that they do. I see them on the floors daily, and they are always so friendly and helpful to me. They especially assist me when I need to find things or find directions since I am a newer employee. I am also so grateful for the job that they do in keeping all our coworkers, patients and families safe by keeping a clean facility especially during this pandemic.
“With that being said, I contacted Nick who told me they could wash this patient's clothing. I went to the patient’s room and gathered the clothing realizing how sick he was when he came in due to the state of his clothing. I brought them down to environmental services, and upon entering, I saw many friendly coworkers. When I was telling them why I was there, without much of a word, Tina Alvis readily agreed to wash this patient's clothing. I was very busy that day and very grateful for all their help. I left her with the clothing and made a note for myself to go pick them up in the morning when he was to be discharged. I couldn't even remember that day if I told her the patient's room number.
“The next morning when I went to the floor to pick up my assignment sheet from med/surg, I ran into Tina. I spoke with her and told her I would head down to pick up the patient’s clothes. She told me I did not need to do so as she personally delivered his clothes to his room, and on top of that, she prayed with this patient. This act of kindness was huge to me. She was so kind to our patient and so kind to me. This really touched my heart, and I can only imagine how this made the patient feel. Being a nurse for as long as I have and having several family members that were close to me require hospice services, I can empathize with what this patient was going through. I can understand the importance of going home with hospice in his own clean clothing. It may seem like a small deed, but it was a big deal to me. I can't express enough how grateful I am to our environmental services team.”