Nurse Pam Melvin honored for lifetime of service at Fayette County Memorial Hospital

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One local nurse is being honored for her service after 37 years of making a positive impact on community healthcare.

Pam Melvin at Fayette County Memorial Hospital will be honored with an award in June for giving a lifetime of service in Fayette County. Melvin was recently nominated for the 2017 Ohio Hospital Association Healthcare Worker of the Year Award.

Melvin is an infection control and clinical informatics nurse at the hospital. As a clinical informatics nurse, she works with the hospital’s electronic medical records, performing upgrades and working with physicians and nurses on emergency room and in-patient documentation.

She has been a registered nurse for 37 years, spending nearly all of those years in Fayette County. She got her first job at Fayette County Memorial Hospital in January of 1980. She began her career in the medical/surgical unit, where she eventually became manager. After working in hospice and surgery for several years, she briefly left Fayette County and went to work at Grant Medical Center in Columbus.

She quickly returned to Fayette County.

“Coming back to work at Fayette County Memorial Hospital is like coming home because you know the people here and you know the people you are taking care of. Whatever you can do to be positive to make a positive impact or try to attempt to improve that patient’s health, you want to always feel like you’ve done a good job and that you’ve taken their care as a priority,” said Melvin.

Her experience has given her more than 20 years of practice as a surgical nurse. Melvin has also served as a front line caregiver and over the years her services have been valued in the emergency room, intensive care unit, stress testing, hospice, and most recently, infection control.

“It’s a very humbling experience. I am very proud of the nomination but I certainly know and realize that I have worked with many, many great nurses that are well-deserving of that honor, too. Throughout the years, people that had been my mentor, and that I’ve tried to pattern my life as a nurse on, are certainly an important part of how I work as a nurse,” said Melvin.

Melvin said she has never stopped learning about healthcare since she got her license and that there’s always something new to learn in nursing.

“I don’t do it for the recognition. I do it for the care of the patients and I’m always about putting the patient first and taking care of them no matter what my role has been,” said Melvin.

She is actively involved in the community’s health care as the Fayette County American Heart Association site coordinator. She also serves on the hospice board and is a member of the Phi Beta Psi Cancer Sorority. Melvin founded the Fayette County Chapter of Compassionate Friends, a grievance support group that meets in the hospital regularly for people who have lost a loved one.

“I was born here 61 years ago and my mother worked for the two local surgeons at that time, which would have been Dr. Shaw and Dr. Hancock, and they did a lot for this hospital and they were amazing individuals. They did a lot for this community. I’ve always been proud to work here,” said Melvin.

Pam Melvin was recently nominated for the 2017 Ohio Hospital Association Healthcare Worker of the Year Award.
http://www.recordherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/05/web1_pam-melvin.jpgPam Melvin was recently nominated for the 2017 Ohio Hospital Association Healthcare Worker of the Year Award. Courtesy photo
37 years of positive impact on community health

By Ashley Bunton

[email protected]

Ashley may be contacted by calling her at (740) 313-0355 or by searching Twitter.com for @ashbunton

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