Nomination Letter

Written by Reeta Aggarwal, Owner, BrightStar Care of Northern Middlesex

Cynthia Hernandez, BSN, RN had been hired as a field nurse for our agency in August 2017. She continued to work in the hospital as a Critical Care nurse while covering assessments for our office and quickly took on 2 new infusion cases with BrightStar Care. Then suddenly, when the need for a new DON arose in our office in February 2018, Cynthia excitedly jumped on board to take on the role. We immediately knew she was a perfect fit for our office team. Yes, there was a big learning curve. But each step of the way, filled with excitement and appreciation of the team’s help, she kept plugging away and learning more.

In just the approximate one year that Cynthia has been our Director of Nursing, we have increased our nursing staff with 9 added nurses (6 of whom are infusion nurses). Cynthia truly has the ‘lead by example’ mentality. She routinely prioritizes what’s needed to be addressed with employee and client matters and documentation. She will just grab her bag and go out for a new client assessment, if none of the field nurses can. She will jump right in to fill a nursing shift when there is a last-minute call-out. And she will gladly schedule herself for infusion cases to ensure we provide the best quality service for our referral partners.

Then there are the fun last-minutes urgent situations that are inevitable. Sometimes that means running out in the middle of your dinner to assist a nurse or client in need.

Families and even employees often compliment us on the value-added services of having a skilled and compassionate nurse in the core team. Cynthia does not leave the home until the client is satisfied.

I feel Cynthia has made a major impact, not only in the lives of our clients, but also in they way she represents the BrightStar Care brand. For that, I feel Cynthia is a perfect fit for BrightStar’s Nurse of the Year!

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Customer review from David, grandson of Cynthia's client Sandy

My grandmother is 83 years old and unfortunately suffering greatly from dementia. Because of this, she has been getting more difficult to handle and very emotionally unstable. I had contacted a few stay at home companies as well as nursing homes to find my grandma help. Every one I found was very similar and very "average." The last company I met with was BrightStar Care, and the decision was obvious by how much more care, support, and flexibility they offered.

Reeta who met with me and my grandmother was extremely pleasant, knowledgeable and experienced, and we knew we wanted to give BrightStar Care a try. Reeta informed me Cynthia would be my grandmother's nurse coming over to check in on my grandma and her full time caretaker from BrightStar Care. When she came over for the first time, Cynthia was really pleasant, kind and informative and made my grandma and I more than comfortable and happy with the decision we made. Cynthia helps us every step of the way weekly, and every time we need additional help she has a smile and wonderful, upbeat personality.

The first caretaker we had was wonderful - I was extremely pleased. Because of my grandma's dementia she has a very hard time getting along with most people anymore because of the amount of discomfort she's in. My grandma asked me for a new caretaker but did not have a reason for it. I tried to reason with her, but had no success. I called Cynthia and explained to her the situation. Cynthia had a brand new caretaker meeting with my grandma the next day and made sure my grandma was more than happy. We are still using BrightStar Care's caretaker Dorris full time, and my grandma couldn't be happier with the amount of help she is offered from Cynthia, her caretaker Dorris, and Reeta.

I do not usually leave reviews, but with how big of a blessing Cynthia and BrightStar Care have been to our company, it was the least I could do to show my appreciation. We will continue to use BrightStar Care and all the professional and amazing staff they employ. 

Thank you for keeping my grandma safe with my family as long as we can – and a very special thank you to Cynthia who has been and continues to be a true miracle for our family.