Yesterday, Ania Renteria received the Iowa Hospital Association Hospital Hero Award. This is awesome!! So I was thinking about this award. The IHA Hospital Hero award is definitely a very cool honor bestowed upon people from across the state for various reasons. Anyone who has gone through orientation in the past year or two, and has heard me talk about the Standards of Behavior, has heard me use Ania as an example of managing up. It is so easy to manage up Ania because - 1. I know her story and 2. she’s great. This morning I thought “Ania, patron saint of goodness” – albeit from a Methodist perspective. Whatever, whenever and why ever; Ania is there taking care of everyone – from the patients, to the families, to the co-workers … she radiates the “example”.
“Hero? Huh? So Ania rescued a bunch of kittens from a burning building or something equally as heroic?” Hero is defined in a bunch of different ways. Ania is known for routinely checking with patients, and going to their homes, and reducing their anxieties … as if they are her only priority. She is like this – she, like all of us probably multi-tasks however, she is probably trying to figure out other ways to make your life better as opposed to planning dinner. Ania’s heroic deeds stem from leading from the heart without expectation of return.
I met Ania in a church pew a dozen plus years ago as a new immigrant to the United States from South Africa and Bulgaria. She barely spoke English at the time and was looking to start a new life. At the urging of Lorraine from church, Ania went to college to become a Radiology Tech and the rest is history. From a church pew to Iowa Hospital Association Hospital Hero – she has definitely shown us all what is possible, and what love and courage put together in the right way can become.
-Steve Simonin, President & CEO
