MONROE — SSM Health Monroe Clinic Medical Group Medical Assistant, Teresa Nelson, has been named the newest recipient of the BEE Award. Teresa serves patients at the Albany clinic location. 

Teresa was nominated by fellow Albany nurse Kaylee Ritschard. 

“I had a pediatric patient come in on the nurse’s schedule for a vaccine, and you could tell she was very anxious,” Ritschard wrote in her nomination. “Teresa is familiar with this patient’s anxiety around vaccinations, so she went out to buy popsicles to calm her nerves. As I was prepping the vaccine, Teresa went out of her way to come into the room to check in on the patient and offered to administer the vaccine. The patient ended up doing well with Teresa giving her vaccine, and Teresa even made a point for her to sit a few minutes in the lobby and checked back in on her to make sure she was okay before leaving. You could really tell she made a huge difference in this patient’s experience with this vaccine, and I truthfully think her anxiety around vaccines was much better because of the Teresa’s efforts to go above and beyond.”

The BEE Award was created to recognize any non-nursing staff members who demonstrate excellent quality care, extraordinary compassion, focus on the patient and the patient’s needs and effective collaboration with other members on the patient care team.