Gabrielle Cinnamon, Author at The Riverside Connection

Riverside Young Professionals Cohort 7 Graduation

Congratulations to Cohort 7 of Riverside’s Young Professionals on their graduation!

Riverside Young Professionals (RYP) is a voluntary group intended to provide up to 25 selected Riverside employees with exclusive and unique Riverside leadership development opportunities designed to provide a deep view of Riverside Healthcare, access to Riverside Senior Management, opportunities to network with other Riverside team members with similar interests, and participation in community service. This program met one evening per month, from January 2023 to June 2024.

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Wedding in the Emergency Department

Written by ED Team Leader Tami Walters:

Saturday, May 11th was not a great start for our team. A GSW who didn’t make it, a critical stroke patient that needed urgent surgery, and a heavy mental health day with no end in sight, just to name a few of our moments that day. Our staff was amazing through it all! Pretty sure no one got lunches that day, and not one person complained! We worked together as a team, supporting each other and reminding ourselves to just ‘keep swimming’ as the day just continued to bring more and more sick people!


One of our patient’s was pretty critically ill…dangerously low blood sugar, oxygen levels, and circulating blood volume. We worked tirelessly for hours to stabilize, but more abnormal things were found; The patient decided to go hospice (Jan, our super amazing social worker worked for hours getting the hospice orders in place) and more bad news continued to come in, as the patient needed blood, couldn’t keep sugars up, very high potassium, and very high troponin.


As our team continued working to stabilize, the patient and his significant other asked if we could call a Chaplin to marry them. They weren’t clueless to how things were looking. They’d been together for many years, but with this illness, just couldn’t find the right time to plan a special day. I’m proud to have watched our team work quickly to organize one of the sweetest moments of my career!


Nicole, our amazing secretary called pastoral care and he was quick to join us. Nicole also bought two cupcakes. Members of our super star respiratory department (Jen, Tricia & Liz) supplied the flowers.

Reagan H, our sweet Tech was the maid of honor (she’s getting married this month too and was the perfect person to stand with the bride). As the ceremony began, our patient flow did not slow down, but thankfully we could spare a few of our staff to witness a once in a career moment!


Guests were Brooklynn & Carsten (two more of our amazing Techs) Billy, who was the patient’s primary nurse that day, the RTs and myself! I’ve been a paramedic and nurse for 27 years and have never experienced such a rollercoaster of emotions on a single shift! This family was so grateful to our staff for pulling this together! I told Billy when he gave report ‘tell the floor we took care of the ceremony, now they’re in charge of the reception’!


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Join Us at the 2024 Friendship Festival Parade!

Represent Riverside at the 2024 Bourbonnais Friendship Festival Parade on Sunday, June 30. Line-up location and time coming soon!

Shirt Pick Up is Wednesday, June 26, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the South Lobby by the Gift Shop. If you cannot pick up your shirt during this time – no need to fear! You can schedule a time to pick it up from the marketing office by contacting Gabby Cinnamon at [email protected] or we will have your shirt ready for you the day of the parade!

Riverside employees who sign up receive a special edition 60th Anniversary Riverside t-shirt to wear at the parade! If you have any questions, please reach out to Gabby Cinnamon at [email protected] or ext. 46503.

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Starfish Award Winner: John H.

Congratulations to our most recent Starfish Ward Winner John Hebert, Patient Safety Partner! Read his story below.

On 4/17, John finished his shift and on his way to his car, he noticed something in the parking lot that looked like a trash bag of sorts. He thought it was odd, so he went to go check it out and it was an older man that had fallen in the dark, with his dark navy jacket on, hunched on the ground and couldn’t get up. John, with no hesitation, hurried over to ask the man if he was hurt, needed help, and what had happened. He called the house supervisor and let her know the situation and asked for security to come out to help as well. They were able to help the man up, offered him medical attention (which he refused) and found out he was a patient from Miller. I just felt this was very humbling to hear about, to hear that an employee who was off the clock and on his way home, still made time to make sure this man was helped up, wasn’t hurt and that he safely got back to Miller. If he hadn’t stopped to see what was going on, that man may have laid there unnoticed for quite some time. Not only did this situation cause me to feel obligated to nominate John, but also how each and every day I see him at work, everyone knows him. He is so friendly to all he comes in contact with, making friends everywhere he goes. Sometimes, I know he feels his job is insignificant, but he truly does make an impact in patients’ and coworkers’ lives. He is so deserving of some sort of recognition for all the hard work he does with keeping patients safe on the 5th floor and off the floor. The heart he puts into his job shows how much he truly cares for patients’ safety, and he will go out of his way to be sure this is accomplished, no matter if he is on the clock or not. He is very dedicated to Riverside and the mission that Riverside represents. I hope he can get some recognition for his heartfelt work!

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