SMHC’s 2022 Caregiver of the Year Respiratory Therapist Cheryl Dedian, center, was named SMHC Caregiver of the Year. She is accompanied by Margaret Weed, respiratory therapy manager and Nate Howell, president, Southern Maine Health Care. Courtesy photo

SCARBOROUGH — Cheryl Dedian of Scarborough has been named Southern Maine Health Care’s 2022 Caregiver of the Year. Dedian is a Respiratory Therapist at the Biddeford medical center. For the past 2 1/2 years, she has thrown herself into delivering lifesaving care to our COVID-19 patients, on top of caring for  other patients needing critical respiratory care.

The vital role of the respiratory therapist was highlighted by the pandemic and team members like Dedian responded with an extraordinary and selfless dedication to excellence and compassion, according to an SMHC press release. Dedian rose to the challenge, to not just learn new techniques and treatment as knowledge of the virus evolved, but master them. She was routinely assigned to the Special Care Unit where she often treated an excess of six ventilated patients. She became the expert on life-saving proning maneuvers and often took the lead to prone appropriate COVID-19 patients.

Margaret Weed, respiratory therapy manager, said, “Cheryl maintains a strong clinical presence and demonstrates an expertise in which other disciplines will seek her out for her assistance. She is recognized for going above and beyond in demonstrating care, compassion and professionalism. She believes in treating her patients the same way she would want her family or herself to be treated. She has a way of making people in her presence feel comfortable and safe. She is smart, competent, respectful, kind and positive. Cheryl continuously offers her knowledge – along with a helping hand.”

The Caregiver of the Year award is chosen based upon patient comments and peer recommendations throughout the organization, according to the release. The recipient must meet the following criteria: exemplify extraordinary commitment to patients on a daily basis; show compassion, empathy and respect in the delivery of care to patients and their families; acknowledge and meet the unique physical, emotional and practical needs of patients and their families and; promote an environment of cooperation and collaboration in which the expertise and experience of all healthcare professionals are available to patients.

“Cheryl exemplifies our values and these standards of excellence with every single shift and we are grateful for her unwavering dedication to our patients and care team as we strive to fulfill our vision of working together so our communities are the healthiest in America,” SMHC President Nate Howell said.