Janet Rogers, left, made a lasting impression on Edna Benjamin Pierre Louis.
Edna Benjamin Pierre Louis is the director of nursing at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Haiti. Edna and 6 of her colleagues are spending 5 weeks training in their respective fields at Akron Children’s Hospital. In September, the Akron Children’s staff who works closely with them in Akron will travel to Haiti to complete the cycle and further their training and education at St. Damien. This program is supported through a grant from Rotary, which shares Akron Children’s vision of empowering our Haitian colleagues to care for the children of Haiti in a sustainable way.
Here are Edna’s reflections after her first week in Akron:
On Monday, May 23, I met an extraordinary woman. Janet Rogers is the director of critical care, emergency departments and specialty care units at Akron Children’s Hospital. Janet is leaving a huge impression on me, starting with the kindness she has shown me throughout my first week.
She introduced me to several other managers and directors who were also very welcoming.
I had the opportunity to attend several meetings with Janet. At the beginning, I didn’t understand how the hospital functioned but after only a short time, I understood so much more than when I started. I was happy to see how everyone works as a team here. Although there are many people involved, they function as a unified team and I was impressed to see how well everything is coordinated and planned.
Janet further impressed me with the way she equitably handles conflict that arises in the workplace. She also never tires of my questions. I never ask questions during meetings, instead when I want to better understand something, I ask Janet about it after the meeting and she is always available to answer my questions.
This week was a great week for me and I hope to continue to take advantage of every minute I spend with the great staff at Akron Children’s, especially Janet.
Thank you Janet and thank you to everyone who has worked with Janet and I this week!
I would also like to thank Dr. Jeff Kempf and Dr. Brittany Potts for allowing me to participate in this beautiful experience in nursing administration at Akron Children’s Hospital and to everyone else who helped develop this training program. I also cannot forget to thank the Rotarians from Ohio and Port au Prince.
by
saintdamienhospital.nph.org 