For the UTMB Health nurses, doctors, medical assistants and countless other team members on the frontlines every day, helping others is a key part of the job description.
Typically, on the receiving end of that accommodating care and spirit are the many patients UTMB serves. However, James McClain, a licensed vocational nurse and Bristy Delao, a cluster nurse manager—both employed within UTMB’s Correctional Managed Care division—found themselves helping one of their own recently, when an offender attacked one of their colleagues in the process of administering medical treatment.
With an officer working to subdue the offender, McClain was able to tend to his wounded teammate—a task not explicitly listed in his job description. Delao, the manager for McClain and the attacked employee, then made the decision to stay in the hospital overnight with the employee and worked to ensure relevant family members, including the employee’s son, were alerted of the situation.
The employee has gone on to describe Delao as an approachable manager who always displays the highest professionalism and compassion—qualities that seem to be shared across the team, given McClain’s fast-acting, potentially life-saving instinct to help his teammate.
During a recent CMC conference, Dr. Charles P. Mouton, president ad interim, praised both Delao and McClain for their actions and awarded them with the President’s Way to Go Award.