Marilyn Babineau, RN
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“We all learned what resilience is all about.”
For nearly 50 years, Marilyn Babineau has been a smiling face in the halls of The Moncton Hospital, three years as a student followed by 46 of those years as a full-time employee. Today, she is the Regional Manager Employee Health and Wellness for The Horizon Health Network, working hard to ensure the well-being of all the dedicated healthcare workers in our region, a job that has brought extra challenges during COVID.
“The last year and a half has been a complete change for everyone. The first day after they locked down the province, I was going to work and there were hardly any cars on the road. You didn’t see people outside. Then you went inside the hospital and it was a whole different atmosphere. It was an eerie feeling. Even though everybody found it scary, everyone came together and asked “what can I do to help? It was amazing to watch.”
“Immediately people started stepping up. Because our outpatient services were down, we took physiotherapists, speech and hearing staff and social workers and we made them the screeners at our doors to welcome our staff. They were gung-ho, making it a really positive experience for people to come to work.”
“One screener, in particular, would just go out of his way to make people really feel welcome dancing up and down the red winter carpet we had put down. It started off everybody’s day with a smile.”
“There’s so many staff and volunteers that went the extra mile, making sure that we had tablets so that families could stay in touch with patients. Nurses saying, ‘I can go up there after work and spend some time with the family’ when their loved ones couldn’t come in. Everyone went out of their way to say to the patients, ‘You’re safe here. We’re going to take care of you.”
“We all learned what resilience is all about, and how to bounce back. I’d tell them what we said in the morning may change by lunch, and I guarantee you that by 4 o’clock, I’m going to be telling you something totally different because that’s the way it was all evolving. We all became very good at adapting.”
“We’ve always felt close as a hospital family but I think this has brought us closer together. I spend more time trying to reach out and tell them they’re doing a great job. I’m a hugger, that’s just the way I am and not to hug somebody is really strange. I will do an occasional elbow bump with somebody just to say, you know, “how are you doing?”, but it’s not as satisfying as that hug.”
“I think we’ve learned a lot during this pandemic, things that are going to change many of our practices. We’re all on a ship that’s going in the same direction. When people work for the same goal, we go so much further together!” – Marilyn Babineau, RN
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Right now, you can ensure everyone in our community receives the best care possible by giving to the Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation.
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