December MVP — Kristie Cervantes
| The MVP for December is Kristie Cervantes. Kristie is a licensed practical nurse in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Neurology, and she wonderfully represents the UAMS values of being polite, friendly, respectful, thoughtful, optimistic and compassionate. Here is what her nominator wrote:
I found out about this because Kristie’s former boss, Dr. Ben Tharian, in gastroenterology, emailed me to tell me how lucky we were to have her in our Neurology clinic now.
Come to find out in her past job, Kristie became close with her patients and made sure she was easily accessible to them in case they had ever needed anything. One of those GI patients with cancer had an urgent need and contacted her to tell her that he was having trouble getting through, and he felt he needed her help.
During this call, she recognized the signs of sepsis and made calls to get him admitted. He indeed was septic, and she may well have saved his life. This is a great example of the type of caregiver she is. It was not her job to do any of that, but she knew it needed to be done, and she did it on her day off because that is the dedicated and caring individual that she is. We are indeed blessed to have her in our clinic.
UAMS will recognize Kristie in several ways as this month’s MVP. Look for her photo on the Employee Appreciation Wall outside the Chancellor’s Suite in the Central Building. She will receive free parking for a month in any of the parking decks. A Faces of UAMS video will feature her, and UAMS is giving her some great swag. At one of the chancellor’s cabinet meetings, Kristie will receive a certificate and monetary award, and UAMS will honor her and other awardees at the year-end MVP luncheon.
Do you know someone who should be the next MVP? If you have someone you’d like to nominate, please visit go.uams.edu/mvp/ and fill out the form.
UAMS celebrates and congratulates Kristie for being MVP of the Month!