MRH’s Joan Hillewaert wins Colorado Hospital Superhero Award
Hillewaert was one of 100 honorees with that award
Joan Hillewaert, a nurse at Memorial Regional Health, has been awarded the Colorado Hospital Superheroes Award by the Colorado Hospital Association. She was one of 100 people around the state to be awarded the honor.
According to the Colorado Hospital Superheroes Award website, it describes a superhero as having one or more of, “courage, strong moral code, great sense of responsibility, fighting spirit, mental toughness.”
In submitting a name, people had to tell the organization how the nominee has exhibited at least one superhero trait during these challenging times and has positively impacted patients, peers and/or the community.
Hillewaert was very humble in her accepting of the award, insisting that everybody that she works with should receive the award. She was nominated for the award by somebody within the hospital but said she doesn’t know whom, saying she was shocked to even win the award.
“It kind of blows your mind, it’s hard to even fathom that I would win something like that,” Hillewaert, who was the lone winner from MRH, said. “Somebody [at MRH] was very kind [in nominating me], but there are a whole lot of people that are more deserving than I for sure.”
Hillewaert specifically mentioned the RNAs, pharmacy workers and janitors as more deserving than her.
“We work as a team,” Hillewaert said. “Not that one person deserves it, the whole team deserves it. From the people cleaning the hospital to the pharmacy people, the CNAs…they work so hard. Everybody works really hard to make sure everything goes together.”
One of the prizes for being winning the award is an entry into a drawing for a transferable full-tuition scholarship for an advanced health care degree at American Sentinel University.
Hillewaert said that she doesn’t want to win the scholarship thought, citing the financial help it could provide for someone else.
“I would hope that they could give it to somebody that could benefit from that degree for a long time,” Hillewaert said. “That would be lovely, but I would like somebody who could really use it and benefit for years and help a lot of people.”
The drawing for the scholarship and a virtual appreciation event are both date to be determined, according to the website.
moneill@craigdailypress.com
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