WDH 2020-2021 Nursing Report - Flipbook - Page 28
Structural Empowerment
meaningful and distinguish medical assistants as true
health care providing profession.
HOME Award
Brian Masse, CCMA, MT
Clinical Lead, Center for Weight Management
& Bariatric Surgery and Wentworth Health
Partners General Surgery
I have been a working medical assistant for 13 years in
many care lines – family practice, private practice, and
specialty practice. One thing I have realized is that I
viewed my role as more than just an administrative
role. I have always believed I was an important part
of the patient care team. After years of hearing my
peers say they felt underappreciated, that they didn’t
feel like a part of their care teams, or that they were
not as appreciated as other roles, the wheels started
turning. The second thing I realized was that there
was never a way to recognize excellence in the medical
assistant profession. There are many awards that
medical assistants are eligible for, but they really are
a mix of administrative and nursing roles. I felt we
needed something that elevated the medical assistant
profession to a higher level, made it a true profession,
and made my peers feel the way that I do about our role
in the patient care team.
I began to put together a simple program to honor
those medical assistants who exemplify the role and
strive every day to highlight the professional attributes
that elevate our role and profession. Something that
will be peer driven and meaningful, not just to the
nominee but to the organization. Doctors, nurses, other
medical assistants, administration team members, and
senior executives alike can nominate. It didn’t need
to be elaborate or extravagant, but it did need to be
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Wentworth-Douglass Hospital
I wanted the award to have a positive impact on not
just the medical assistant themself but the profession.
I hoped it would allow for better medical assistant job
satisfaction and better medical assistant retention at
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital and Wentworth Health
Partners. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just a
popularity competition either. That the winner was
someone who takes their role seriously and exemplifies
all the attributes that the role carries: empathetic
attitude, dependability, initiative, flexibility, a continuing
desire to learn and grow, good communication skills, and
truly ethical behaviors. I wanted to ensure that by giving
it value that people would be proud to receive it, and
that others would be inspired to nominate their peers.
The award is open to all medical assistants’ organization
wide – WDH and WHP. It is meant to be a celebration of
accomplishments and the outstanding character and day
to day work ethic of the winner.
With the help of other
medical assistants and
several major champions
within WentworthDouglass Hospital and
Wentworth Health
Partners the HOME Award
(Honoring Our Medical
assistants of Excellence)
was developed and launched August 2021 and our first
ever HOME Award was awarded to Maryanne Enright,
MA from Bellamy Health Center in October.
Home to me is the way patients should feel when
them come to see us here for care and with the Patient
Centered Home Care model at Wentworth-Douglass
Hospital and Wentworth Health Partners, it has found its
own home.
The award is given out each quarter and from the 4
winners each year, one will be chosen as the medical
assistant of the year. Quarterly HOME Award
Nominations are due by end of quarter: September 30th,
December 31st, March 31st, June 30th and nomination
can be sent to: HOME.Award@partnershealthcare.
onmicrosoft.com.