Cecilia Pascual: A Remembrance
Our HPAE Local lost a valuable member to COVID recently. Cecilia started at Englewood Hospital in the Home Health Department. When Home Health closed, she transferred to 2 Kaplan. Transferring from an area where you have worked for many years, leaving a group of co-workers who became friends, and learning a new specialty is daunting for most. Cecilia accepted the challenge with a willingness to learn and flourished.
In the words of her co-workers, you will learn that Cecilia has left a huge void on her unit. We send our sympathies to the nursing staff of 2K on the loss of their friend. We send our sympathies to the new nurses who won’t experience her patience, and benefit from her knowledge. We send our sympathies to those patients that will never know her kindness. We send our sympathies to her family, who we pray will heal in time from the loss they have suffered.
Our HPAE Local is paying a Living Tribute to Cecilia by the reforestation of a National Forest in New Jersey. Twenty-five trees will be planted in her memory.
Cecilia was always kind to everyone; she was always cheerful. She would do anything to make patients happy. I remember when she had an orientee, she was the only one who walked around the unit to get all the post op day zero patients out of the bed. She attended unit base team meeting on her day off. In general, she was a team player.
-Mary Ellen Wymer, RN, 2K
I believe it only takes one person to affect significant, positive change in a team environment. That person must be dynamic, honest, empathetic, and reliable to embody this role, Cecelia Pascual was that person on 2K. She was patient and kind with me, a new RN with endless questions. She made time to answer my questions or reinforce a skill regardless of the hour. She was a model preceptor, never judgmental, always approachable and encouraging. She was upbeat and welcoming to every co-worker and patient. Her positivity was especially crucial to all of us when we became a COVID unit. She worked through the crisis with her usual brightness. She was a joy to work with and a dear friend.
-Coleen Shea, RN, 2K
