|
Heidi Clinesmith, Clerk Nursing (CN) 5 East 7 years of service
She's an air traffic controller, the clearance hub for the incoming traffic that is characteristic of 5 East, the cardiac stepdown unit. That's how Heidi Clinesmith, Clerk Nursing (CN) sees her role. And the main thing, the very essential thing that she emphasized, was that she would "do anything for any one of them (her co-workers)."
"Customer service, for me, is the patient comes first," Heidi noted. "The more I can make their (the nurses) job easier, the more time they can have with the patients."
Her approach to customer service may very well have been inherited from her father, who, years ago, owned the Crumbly Burger restaurant on the corner of Center and Washington in downtown Bay City. And when Heidi would travel from Vassar, where she still lives, to visit her father, she took a liking to the community. She signed up for classes at Delta College, applied for the job at Bay - and for the past seven years she has made it a daily goal to make "anybody's job easier."
A CN's role includes processing physician orders, maintaining patient charts, answering questions posted by family members - and filing, filing, and more filing.
Heidi said it may be surprising for people to learn about the amount of responsibility a CN has. "We're the go-between for the nurse and ancillary departments - or the nurse and the patient," she explained. "The CN is a link in the communication flow." And part of being that link is learning to decipher handwriting. "I could read hieroglyphics now," Heidi laughed.
But how does she keep everything on task? Statline asked Heidi for her secrets to good organization. "Keep your desk clean," she suggested. "Everything has a place - and I thank my mentor, Jamie McCrary, for that tip."
"Orders come first, but keep on task till everything's done. Make notes if you get sidetracked and need to go back."
Heidi's focus on customers doesn't end with the patients - she also extends it to her coworkers in a special way by bringing in the results of her favorite hobby. "I am Martha Stewart," she laughed. "I love to bake - my specialties are cookies, cakes, banana bread. My co-workers are like family and I like to nurture them."
Thank you for your continued emphasis on customer service, Heidi. You are a source of inspiration - congratulations!
|