Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.
On Monday, Dec. 9, the Florida Health Care Association (FHCA) announced that Tiwana Mutch-Miller, a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at Brynwood Health and Rehabilitation Center, in Monticello, is this year’s winner of FHCA’s CNA Essay Contest. For her entry in the essay contest, Mutch-Miller was awarded a $500 cash prize.
The annual essay contest that is hosted by the FHCA helps raise awareness regarding the important role of CNAs and their contributions to high-quality care and quality of life for more than 72,000 long term care residents in Florida.
The essay that Mutch-Miller authored was recognized as the newest state-wide winner for the association’s CNA Essay Contest. Mutch-Miller says that the essay drew deeply from her own personal experiences working with nursing center residents for 11 years.
For the 2019 Essay Contest, FHCA asked CNAs who are employed in one of the 600+ nursing centers and living facilities that are affiliated with the association to submit up to 500 words about their personal experiences.
The essays were to surround a designated theme: “CNAs: A Caring Touch That Means So Much.”
Participants were given six topics around which to craft their essay - Dignity, Respect, Compassion, Listening, Communication or Standards of Care - and were then tasked to write about how these words translated into their daily practice of delivering a caring touch to residents.
For 11 years, Mutch-Miller has been a CNA at Brynwood, but she says that she learned from an early age that to be successful in whatever role she carried out. In order to accomplish success, Mutch-Miller said that she fostered an aura of care and passion for her task at hand.
In her essay, she wrote that as a CNA: "you must go overboard in this chosen line of work... by all means there's no limit in providing the type of care for all residents… Anyone can be a Certified Nursing Assistant, but only the ones with passion and good morals, exceptional work ethic, will respect the role they are in.”
Brynwood Administrator Rhod Fenelus noted that Mutch-Miller’s essay exemplified the respect which she shows to every one of her residents in the everyday care she provides.
“Tiwana always puts the residents’ needs and preferences first. Her concerns about what residents’ think and want in how they receive care make her an excellent role model for her peers, all of whom are striving to deliver the most person-centered care,” said Fenelus. “I am very proud to be associated with such a fine person who always goes above and beyond for our residents.”
“Ms. Mutch-Miller is an excellent example of what successful long term care nursing assistants contribute to the high-quality care delivered to the residents in our FHCA member centers. We are proud to honor her for her dedication and commitment to the profession,” said FHCA Executive Director Emmett Reed.
The additional winners of the FHCA 2019 contest included second-place winner Diana Barr of Chatsworth at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens and third-place winner Laura Munoz of Centre Pointe Health & Rehabilitation in Tallahassee.
For more information about FHCA’s CNA Essay Contest and to read excerpts of the top three entries, visit the FHCA website at fhca.org.
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