Patients in The Woodlands, Texas area who have respiratory issues can breathe a little easier knowing that the staff at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital includes one of the industry’s best RTs. Respiratory therapist Mary Fruzia earned the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System Respiratory Therapist of the Year award in recognition of her achievements in her practice and the positive impact she has had on her patients over the last year.
Fruzia is the first ever recipient of the award which was organized and established by members of the management team at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Members of the management team there took it upon themselves to establish the award primarily because of the “tremendous skill, patience, and compassion that the System’s respiratory therapists demonstrate on a daily basis but for which they rarely receive the proper degree of recognition.” It was purposefully set up to be presented during the first full week of November in celebration of National Respiratory Care Week.
Several therapists received nominations from each of the campuses in the Memorial Hermann System. Fruzia, however, was selected because of what her colleagues describe as her “excellent clinical skills, great bedside manner, and collaboration abilities” as well as for the passion that she brings to her profession and to her patients.
She received an award as well as a cash prize of an undisclosed amount. Fruzia credits her background and her education as the reasons why she believes she was chosen to receive the awards and says she is “honored and humbled” to be its first recipient.
According to Fruzia, despite the fact that there is a week dedicated to respiratory therapists, people “need to understand just how challenging this job is, how hard RTs work, and how much we love our jobs.”
