Breaking Through a Language Barrier

Elyssa Pennington, RN Receives DAISY Award

Imagine being homeless, not able to speak or understand English and in labor, preparing to give birth to your fourth child. That’s the stressful situation a woman found herself in while at The University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital’s (CVPH) Alice T. Miner Women and Children’s Center (WCC). Elyssa Pennington, RN did all she could to give the mother, new baby and their family what they needed to be able to safely leave the hospital. That [...]

Family Christmas Tradition Continues Thanks to CVPH Gift

A local family will be able to carry on a picture perfect holiday tradition following a special presentation at The University of Vermont Health Network - Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital's (CVPH) Alice T. Miner Women and Children’s Center (WCC). When Anna Anderson was born at the hospital 16 years ago, her family received a Christmas stocking from us. From then on, Anna’s parents took a picture of her with the stocking every holiday season, a tradition that Anna grew [...]

A Calming Influence for a New Mother

Paige LaDuke, BSN, RN Honored With DAISY Award

A nurse’s calm, cool and collected demeanor helped deliver a highly positive birthing experience for a North Country mother. And that is why Paige LaDuke, BSN, RN, C-EFM is being celebrated as The University of Vermont Health Network-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital’s (CVPH) 16th DAISY Award recipient. Making connections is a big part of what CVPH nurses do to help patients through some of the most worrisome moments of their lives. While giving birth is an exciting time for an [...]

Grateful Patient Praises Nurse for Care During Labor

More than three years of waiting, worrying and wondering had finally come to this. Abby Bennett, now the Director of Nursing Research and Clinical Practice at The University of Vermont Health Network-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH), was lying in a bed in the hospital’s Alice T. Miner Women and Children’s Center (WCC) preparing to give birth to her first child. “It was just kind of surreal,” Abby said. She and her husband Ryan, a Licensed Funeral Director [...]

Don't Delay Care

Don’t Delay, Get Screened Today The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many things in our lives but not the importance of regular cancer screening. Screening for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate cancers can dramatically improve treatment outcomes and in some cases, prevent the cancers from occurring in the first place. According to the National Cancer Institute, when detected at its earliest stages and confined to the primary site, the 5 year survival rate for: Breast [...]

The Big Latch On: Supporting Breastfeeding Women in our Community

Breastfeeding women and their families are invited to participate in The Big Latch On planned for Saturday, August 7 at 10:30 a.m.  The event, sponsored by the University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital’s (CVPH) Alice T. Miner Women and Children's Center (WCC) will be held virtually by mobile device or computer on Zoom. Each year, groups of breastfeeding women across the globe come together to nurse their child for one full minute at an es [...]

What are you waiting for?

The COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective and easy to get

If you are waiting to get vaccinated, what specifically will end the waiting? If you are vaccinated but still masking, when will you decide it is safe enough? We don’t typically wait forever for anything. There is usually an “until.” What is your until? If you are waiting until there is more information about the COVID-19 vaccines, here are a few facts that may ease your concerns: As of June 11, 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported more t [...]

Comforting Contributions

Donated teddy bears help CVPH maternity patients cope during difficult times

No matter what you may be going through, it’s hard not to feel at least a little bit better when you are holding a soft teddy bear in your arms. That’s the idea behind the donation of 18 “Comfort Cubs” to the Alice T. Miner Women and Children’s Center at CVPH. The bears were dropped off at the hospital by North Country residents Beverly King and Tiffani Light, who are ambassadors with The Comfort Cub, a non-profit organization that provides the therapeutic b [...]

A Bond is Born

Nurse Honored with DAISY Award for Care of Fellow RN

Caring for our patients and each other is the theme behind CVPH’s newest DAISY Award winner, Melissa Hamel, RNC-OB, C-EFM. Melissa was surprised with the award during a ceremony at the Alice T. Miner Women and Children’s Center at CVPH. As a nurse in the Women and Children’s Center, you never know what’s going to walk in the door. For Melissa on one day in April, it turned out to be a bond that she and her patient will never forget. One of the reasons behind that [...]

Dori's patient couldn't speak English: No problema

Bilingual nurse helps new mom

Imagine being in an unfamiliar country, unable to speak or understand the language. Now add to that being at your most vulnerable, facing a life-changing  event like the birth of your first child?  Doris Hanson, RN of the Alice T. Miner Women & Children’s Center (CWC) met a young woman facing those challenges and vowed she wouldn’t do it along. Hanson is an experienced and bilingual nurse who was working the night the expectant mom was admitted to the CWC with signs [...]