Lotus Award honoree Michelle Massre is shown here with her mother, G5 Unit leader and recent DAISY Award recipient, Yve Massre, and father Isaac Massre during the surprise award celebration held December 1 at Monmouth Medical Center.
Long Branch, NJ, December 3, 2021 – A Monmouth Medical Center (MMC) Patient Care Associate (PCA) has been recognized for going above and beyond to assist her colleagues in a neighboring patient care unit that is the hospital’s designated COVID-19 unit.
Michelle Massre, a PCA on the B5 Medical/Surgical Unit, was recently honored with the Lotus Award, which was created to honor a PCA, Patient Care Technician, or Mental Health Associate that has provided extraordinary, compassionate, patient/family-centered care. She was recognized for her dedication to the care of COVID patients and the staff on the G5 Unit, where Michelle volunteered to work overtime shifts in addition to her regular shifts on B5.
Michelle, who is currently in nursing school, is the daughter of Yve Massre, a medical-surgical nurse who was recently honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses®. In nominating Yve, a unit leader on G5, her colleagues praised her as “a bright light amidst the darkness of the pandemic.”
The G5 team nominated PCA Michelle Massre for her hard work and dedication during the second wave of COVID, said Lauren Russo, Director of Patient Care for G5, noting that she picked up extra shifts whenever possible to help her team ensure safe staffing and excellent patient care.
In nominating Michelle, they wrote:
“Michelle was immediately functioning at the highest level and worked very closely with the team to ensure great patient care and help with staff morale. When a medical leave prevented one of the PCAs from working on the unit full time, she immediately stood up to offer to help our team. Through coordination between G5 and B5 leadership, Michelle was temporarily moved to the G5 team, and continued to pick up extra hours and go above and beyond to help the team. Michelle was frequently praised by co-workers for her excellent care, caring nature and efforts to anticipate patient and coworker needs.
During her tenure with the G5 team Michelle worked to improve patient care and team needs by consistently adjusting workflow to best meet the needs of the unit. She was always willing to try new techniques to ensure patient needs were met, while being efficient in time as well as resource management. With Michelle’s help the team developed a new daily workflow routine to increase hospital response time by modifying ‘hourly rounds’ for COVID patients.
Michelle also serves as the B5 Mobility PCA champion. She works hard daily with patients to ensure all patients are active and assists with the mobility protocols and exercise programs for each patient. Michelle attends monthly meetings with the interdisciplinary mobility team to ensure good patient outcomes and continue the progress of patients.”
The Lotus Award is a new quarterly recognition program at MMC, with Michelle being the second recipient. Lotus Award nominees’ names are all blinded and the nominations go through the hospital’s Patient Care Coordinating Council, which includes staff from Administration, Nursing Leadership and the Chairs of MMC’s Shared Governance Councils.
CONTACT: Kathy Horan
(732) 546-6317
Kathy.Horan@rwjbh.org