PINNED FOR SERVICE

Gunnison Valley Hospital volunteers

honores at annual luncheon June 12 

6-25-2020

GUNNISON—Volunteers at Gunnison Valley Hospital were recognized for their many hours of service during a June 12 luncheon at Gunnison City Hall.

Sharon Hilley, president, conducted the meeting. And service awards were given by hospital administrator Mark Dalley and volunteer director Mindy Bjarnson to 15 volunteers who
compiled 3,000 combined service hours last year.

Fourteen volunteers were present to accept recognition pins for their years of service, including
three who had served 15 years. They are Veone Fjeldstead, Janet Manger and Kirsten Olsen

Guest speaker for the event was Dr. Viet Le, who joined Intermountain Heart Institute cardiovascular research in 2012 and serves as a co-investigator on Intermountain’s INSPIRE Registry. Le began his remarks by saying that the work of caring individuals is stress related, “When you give, you take a deficit in your own care.”

He recited the song, “Give Said the Little Stream” describing how that little stream washes downstream so we need to have a good foundation to build upon.  You built your foundation little by little beginning with a healthy lifestyle, and suggested that we begin by following Life’s Simple Seven, defined by the American Heart Association as the seven risk factors that people can improve through lifestyle changes to help achieve ideal cardiovascular health.  Those Simple Seven ideas are manage blood pressure, control cholesterol, reduce blood sugar, get active, eat better, lose weight and stop smoking.

Dalley stated that volunteers provided much needed service in the hospital that frees up personnel to do their jobs. “Our goal is to make the patient first in all we do,” he said. Responsibilities of volunteers include delivering mail and flowers, giving directions and answering phones at our information desk, delivering files and information from one department to another, and whenever possible giving comfort to those waiting for medical procedures.

“We have no idea or time frame for reopening our hospital.” said Dalley. “There have been more than 40 individuals in Sanpete County that have been diagnosed with COVID-19, but we haven’t seen any cases in our facility, so our valley is very blessed.”

The Gunnison Valley Hospital Volunteer program began 16 years ago under the direction of Susan Anderson at Home Health and Hospice. The first president elected was Bonnie Nay, with Carol Camp as vice president and Iris Neil as secretary.  Hospice volunteers interact with homebound
patients, while hospital volunteers support the hospital.  “We are always hoping that others in our community will want to sign up to give service time to our hospital,” said Bjarnson.