Shobha Gautam, health care aide

Shobha has worked at St. Teresa Place as a health care aide since 2017. In November 2020, she responded to a call for help at Villa Marie, which had several COVID-19 positive residents and staff. She stayed for more than a week, assisting and displaying a compassionate and natural strength of leadership, caring for residents, many who were very sick and dying.

While in Villa Marie and during these difficult days, Shobha displayed the value of good stewardship of time and resources. Not only was Shoba consistently 30 minutes early for her shift, she also checked every cart to see that they were full of supplies and would refill them when needed. Her work was efficient and time saving.

Shobha was given the role of overseeing safety supplies, which gave other staff the freedom to focus on their work in a timely manner. She also demonstrated best practices in the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ensured that her Covenant colleagues and agency staff did the same. She also took the time to support agency staff by communicating expectations clearly and showing them how to use the visual care plan to document care the Covenant way.