Faces of Giving Back: Staff Shares Love and Kindness

From mentoring students to organizing coat drives and helping furry friends, Cape Cod Healthcare employees find joy in volunteering their time to help improve the lives of others on the local and global level.

Rose Ryder, CCH Environmental Services and Gretchen Wronski, Riverview Student

Dynamic Duo on North 3

On the third floor of North 3 at Cape Cod Hospital, mentor Rose Ryder and Riverview School student Gretchen Wronski work together to make every corner sparkle and shine. The pair begin their mornings by creating a checklist: Greet patients, make beds, pull trash, sanitize high-touch areas, mop floors, clean the break room and bathrooms. Gretchen affectionately refers to her mentor as Ms. Rose.

Ryder, a Cape Cod Healthcare housekeeper, takes one student under her wing per semester to teach job skills and accountability in the workplace. Her mentorship is part of a national program called Project SEARCH, a school-to-work transition plan available to students in their last year at Riverview. The program helps young adults with developmental disabilities gain confidence, learn new skills and find jobs. As a mentor, Ryder says she takes a hands-on approach. “I don’t like to say, ‘Go off and do this.’ I enjoy working side by side with them,” says Ryder, who also volunteers a couple of days a week in the summer at Riverview.

Teaching is ultimately a two-way street, and Ryder says she learns a lot during the 2½-month mentoring period, including compassion, determination, gratitude and lots of love. “Working as a mentor is one of the best things I have done. These students are amazing.”

Gretchen explains the feeling is mutual. “I am so happy I get to work at Cape Cod Hospital. I was excited and jumping around,” she says. “Cape Cod Hospital is my favorite and housekeeping is my favorite with Ms. Rose.”

Editor’s Note: After working 23 years at Cape Cod Hospital, Rose Ryder will soon be bringing her upbeat demeanor and strong work ethic to Falmouth Hospital. We wish Rose all the best!

Trish Hill, BSN, RN, CWCN, Wound Care Center in Bourne

Helping Furry Friends Through Foster Care and Volunteering

Trish Hill jokes that she’s always on call for the question, “Trish, can ya … ?”

For the past five years, Hill has fostered 25 animals and clocked 3,000 volunteer hours at the MSCPA Cape Cod animal shelter in Centerville.

The registered nurse certified in wound care has fostered a variety of animals, from guinea pigs and rabbits to puppies and pregnant dogs. It all started when she was looking for a place to volunteer with her teenage son in 2017. “But I never stopped,” says Hill.

Hill’s Monday-through-Thursday schedule at the Wound Care Center in Bourne allows her to volunteer every Friday at the animal shelter, where she assists with everything from sterilizing instruments to helping to intubate the animals. “As a nurse, it is very parallel to what I do anyway, just with a different clientele,” says Hill. “Because I am a certified nurse, I am not intimidated by things, which I think they appreciate.” One time, she recalls providing a helpful set of hands when the veterinarian was performing a C-section. “I was helping to hold the puppies as we were taking them out of the mother,” says Hill.

At the animal shelter, Hill has been nicknamed the “whirling dervish” because she’s always busy and never knows what she will be doing. In addition to assisting the veterinarian and technicians with surgery and wounds, she also helps with the laundry, organizing equipment or unpacking boxes. “It’s so rewarding because I feel so appreciated by the animals and staff,” says Hill. “I can help out without the pressure of being a nurse and the pressure to document. It makes me so happy.”

Rehabilitation Team at JML Care Center

Holiday Coat Drive Wraps Children in Warmth

Every year, the rehabilitation team at JML Care Center in Falmouth organizes a holiday coat drive for children up to age 10 and then donates the items to the Falmouth Service Center. “It is a nice thing to do around the holidays, and, yes, it can feel rewarding and like you are giving something back to the community,” says JML physical therapist Heather Shepley.

“But the main reason we do this coat drive is that no child should be cold,” says Shepley. “It’s as simple as that.”

Shepley says the rehab team follows the direction and needs of the Falmouth Service Center. In the past, they have organized toy drives, but over time, the “ask” has shifted to new hats, coats and gloves. “We change as the needs of the community change,” says Shepley.

From now until Dec. 4, 2022, JML employees may drop off new coats, hats and gloves inside a purple bucket located in the JML rehab gym. Shepley says if you don’t work at JML, you may leave items at the front desk. After the clothing is delivered to the Falmouth Service Center around Dec. 6, organizers there will make them available to families in need.

The entire JML rehab department has been participating in these drives for as long as Shepley can remember. “We’ve always kind of gotten together to donate around the holiday season,” says Shepley, adding their annual collections have never been highly publicized events. “As a department, we really bond over knowing we are making a difference and helping children to stay warm.”

Suzanne Giebel, RN, Clinical Team Manger, Visiting Nurse Association

The Best Therapy: Canine Companions

“Oh, the dogs are here!”

When Suzanne Giebel, RN, takes her therapy dog, Nugget, to visit patients at a nursing home in Mashpee, the excitement in the air is paws-itively palpable.

“As soon as we walk into the lobby, people are just so happy to see the dogs,” says Giebel.

Giebel works as a clinical team manager at the Visiting Nurse Association and volunteers with the nonprofit organization CAP (Companion Animal Program). One Saturday a month, Giebel and Nugget (along with other therapy dogs) visit Laurentide, an assisted living facility in Mashpee Commons. Nugget sports a red handkerchief and Giebel wears a blue T-shirt with the words CAP on the front so they are easy to identify. Although Covid paused therapy dog visits, the program is slowly making a comeback.

A couple of years ago, Giebel met a patient who trained therapy dogs, and it sparked her interest. Before she knew it, Giebel enrolled in a 12-week therapy dog certification program for her Welsh corgi, now two years old. The training involves basic obedience training, such as learning to “leave it,” which is very handy because you don’t want your dog to accidentally swallow a pillow that might be on the floor, she explains.

Nugget provides comfort, affection and loving support to patients during the hour-long visit at Laurentide. “Everybody wants to talk about the dog they had when they were a kid,” says Giebel, who also has two other dogs at home—a one-year old black Lab and a 13-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel. “You hear so many stories and people just go back to their childhoods.

“My dogs make me so happy and I’m just glad I can share the love.”

Alieen Kerns, DO, Otolaryngology, Cape Cod Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists

Volunteering in Malawi: ‘An Experience Like No Other’

For two weeks in October, Aileen Kerns, DO, volunteered in Malawi with a group of fellow surgeons from around the world to treat and operate on patients who traveled for miles and days on foot to obtain care at the only otolaryngology clinic in the southern part of the country.

At Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, Kerns worked with a team of 10 to 15 Ear, Nose and Throat surgeons and anesthesia staff to perform dozens of surgeries with minimal equipment in a short timeframe. The hospital is the largest medical facility in Malawi and the main teaching hospital for the University of Malawi College of Medicine. The surgeons and staff assisted Dr. Wakisi Mulwafu, one of the only ENT surgeons in a country of 19 million people.

“It’s an experience like no other,” says Kerns, adding they worked long days, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., performing five to six surgeries daily. “You learn to think out of the box for a lot of scenarios because of the limited resources they have available and the different environment you are operating in than you would be in the United States. You have to overcome and adapt to obstacles in and out of the operating room.”

The surgical cases for both adult and pediatric patients consisted of procedures related to head and neck cancer: thyroid surgery for goiters due to iodine deficiency; pediatric nasal reconstruction; neck dissections; endoscopic sinus surgery; and parotidectomy (removing salivary gland tumors). The team relied on donated medical and surgical supplies from hospitals in the United States, such as suture material, surgical gloves and gowns and local anesthetics.

This surgical mission trip was Kern’s second experience working with the Madgy Malawi Foundation, a nonprofit group that aims to deliver safe, surgical treatments to the people of Malawi. Kerns previously visited Malawi in 2019 while a resident physician at the Detroit Medical Center. Both experiences, she says, have helped her become a more well-rounded surgeon. Although the group had very little downtime, they did have an opportunity to participate in early morning adventures, including a hike up one of the nearby mountains and a safari at 4 a.m. to a local wild reserve where they came upon a family of elephants.

“My team and I were very thankful for this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these patients who live in one of the poorest countries in the world,” says Kerns. “The people of Malawi are amazing. They are so gracious and are so full of gratitude.”