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Elaine Devine, MSW, LICSW, ensures communication among multidisciplinary staff caring for burn and trauma patients when they’re vulnerable and frightened.
“She is always there, always supportive and always empathetic toward patients and their families,” said Jonathan Gates, MD, director of the Trauma Center.
Her constant compassion and consistent leadership earned Devine this year’s Martha Byron Burke Award for Social Work Excellence.
“This is quite an honor,” Devine told colleagues during a well attended ceremony and reception at Carrie Hall last week. “There are so many social workers here who deserve this award, so many who give 110 percent everyday.”
Named in honor of Social Work Director Martha Burke, the award recognizes a social worker who exemplifies the values and aspirations of excellence in leadership and patient centered care.
“This job is not an easy one,” said Burke, the award’s inaugural recipient last year. “Elaine epitomizes the core traits of our social work profession: empathy, compassion, teamwork, intuition, outstanding clinical skills, teacher, educator and healer.”
Devine, a member of the BWH team for five years, received nearly 20 nominations from fellow social workers, physicians, registered nurses and other staff. “She takes the initiative to solve problems, and no task is too small. It doesn’t matter if it’s as small as finding a meal for a patient or organizing a large team meeting,” one nomination said. “And always, she is there with a shoulder to cry on and lean on.”
Devine has led or been a part of many initiatives to support burn and trauma patients and their families, including bereavement programs, a program that pairs burn survivors with patients for support and “Healing Hands,” a program that comforts children of burn and trauma victims with backpacks containing crayons, coloring books, stuffed animals and coping resources.
During her acceptance speech, Devine showed a slide presentation with photographs of employees in various disciplines involved in the care of patients throughout the hospital. She thanked the everyday heroes she works with on the Social Work and Burn/Trauma teams.
“I’m very fortunate to have landed in a place where there is fertile ground,” Devine said. “In my years here, there’s never been a new idea or a suggestion where anybody has said no. The response is always, yes, sounds good, let’s look into this further.”