Sutter nurse wins social services award

When Debbie Spence walked into a terminally ill, co-worker's hospital room last December and overheard the woman talking to her children about not being able to put up a Christmas tree, she pulled her friends on the third floor of Sutter Delta Hospital together and got to work. For this and so many other things that Spence has done, she is being awarded the Sutter Delta Medical Center's Ida M. Cannon Award 2009.

Spence, who has worked for Sutter Delta for 23 years and is currently the charge nurse on the Telemetry 3 or, as most refer to it, the third floor. She spearheaded the Christmas effort, but Spence is quick to share the credit for her good deed.

"I may have started it, but it really was a group project of everyone from the third-floor nurses, to the social services department to even the CEO of Sutter Delta and the board of directors," Spence said.

The Ida M. Cannon Award is given out through the hospital's social services department to an employee at the hospital outside of the Social Service Department, according to Robert Frabricante, medical social worker. He explained that the department works hard
to find the one employee out of 900 who provides a certain set of social services values.

"Debbie exemplifies the social work principle that relationships between and among people are important in the helping process and seeks to strengthen the relationships in her unit and within the multi-disciplinary team," Frabricante said. "She has worked conscientiously during the past year to improve the morale and working relationships on third floor, recognizing that community service projects are a good way to bring people together."

Spence said that her co-worker died in January, but that those who helped her can be very proud of what they did.

"In the 23 years I've worked at Sutter Delta I have never seen anything like it," Spence said. "The third floor and several other people not only helped to put up a tree but provided a Christmas to this little family."

Helping this one family was not all the services that Spence helped provide this year. Over the past few years the third-floor group has worked to help at least one family during the holidays. Starting at Thanksgiving the group did a food drive with all of the employees at the hospital, including, again, the CEO and the Board. She said that they were able to give a "huge" donation to the Antioch Food Closet.

The same group of third-floor nurses helped another patient at the hospital who was terminally ill at Christmas. The patient was a single parent with three small children. The group placed a board up in the staff lounge and asked fellow employees to purchase items for the family, like food, toys and gifts for the children.

"It was just incredible the way everyone gave their support," Spence said.
Another holiday project included outreach to the schools asking for a child that would need extra help. This family was not one that had any relationship to the hospital, but just to the Antioch community.

"We delivered bicycles to the family," she said. "You get back so much. You are not just giving you are getting. Put it all together and you are the one getting the amazing gift."
"Debbie's willingness to assist others is both genuine and sincere. She leads by example and treats others, as she would want to be treated. She is a wonderful person to receive this award. We are proud that she represents Telemetry 3," Linda Lewis, assistant manager of Sutter Delta's second and third floor.

A luncheon was held in Spence's honor last week offering her a chance to be recognized, as well as the other employees that helped as well. Not only was lunch provided, but also according to Frabricante, the group had a chance to relieve some stress as well playing karaoke just for the fun of it.