{"id":81765,"date":"2013-08-09T15:32:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T19:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=81765"},"modified":"2015-12-14T10:31:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T15:31:45","slug":"uconn-nurse-manager-honored-for-employer-support-of-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/08\/uconn-nurse-manager-honored-for-employer-support-of-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurse Manager Honored for Employer Support of Military"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"abromaitis_deb_patriotic_award_01\"<\/a>
From left: Bill Vernile, ESGR; Chief Nursing Officer Ellen Leone; Debra Abromaitis; UConn nurse and Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. John Quinn; and Quinn's fianc\u00e9, Dawn Beaudoin, also a UConn Health Center nurse. (Sarah Turker\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When John Quinn\u2019s U.S. Navy Reserve unit got called up in January for duty in Guam, it was his second deployment in two years.<\/p>\n

Lt. Cmdr. Quinn is a critical care nurse. That\u2019s also his civilian role at the UConn Health Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the entire nursing department, we are very proud of John\u2019s service to our country,\u201d says Chief Nursing Officer Ellen Leone. \u201cWe have prayed for his safe return and for his family and for his deployments, most recently during the nursing vigil as part of Nurses Week.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did return safely, in late May, and has been back to work since June. Thursday, he showed up for work not in scrubs but in full military dress for an impromptu award ceremony. With his fianc\u00e9, Dawn Beaudoin, and Bill Vernile from the Connecticut office of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Department of Defense agency, he presented the ESGR\u2019s Patriot Award to Debra Abromaitis.<\/p>\n

Abromaitis, formerly the UConn Health Center\u2019s float pool nurse manager and now director of patient relations, was Quinn\u2019s boss when his unit was activated. She was visibly shaken when she learned what was happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn felt very touched that you supported him while he was gone,\u201d Vernile read from Quinn\u2019s nomination. \u201cThere were gift packages that were sent. You stayed in touch with his fianc\u00e9e. When he returned to work you made the transition to civilian life very easy for him. And some service members find difficulty doing that; you made that transition very easy. And then after he came back, he had to go away again. And during that time you gave him that same support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"abromaitis_deb_patriotic_award_03\"<\/a>
The ESGR Patriot Award as presented to Debra Abromaitis on Aug. 8. (Alex Trujillo for UConn Health Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abromaitis says she was not prepared for that kind of recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw them today I thought either John was getting recognized for something, or they were getting married.\u201d she says. \u201cNever, never in my wildest dreams did I expect anything. He\u2019s not good at keeping secrets. So I can\u2019t believe he did this. I really am so honored and shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Quinn learned the Department of Defense had agreed to name Abromaitis a Patriot Award winner, he started scheming with Leone.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeb\u2019s caring and support of John during and after his deployments are representative of what makes our UConn family so special, and I felt that it was important to share this story with the entire community,\u201d Leone says.<\/p>\n

What they came up with was a surprise presentation during safety huddle, a regular meeting of representatives from several dozen UConn Health Center areas. The roughly 30 attendees in the Onyiuke Dining Room stood and applauded when Abromaitis announced, \u201cI really don\u2019t deserve this. It\u2019s truly John for his service to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn has been a reservist for 26 years. His previous deployment was July 2011 through March 2012 Afghanistan, where his unit provided care for combat troops that came under more than 100 rocket attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cCritical care nurses are vital obviously in the military, but also in the hospital as well, so losing a critical care nurse is a void here and that\u2019s hard to fill,\u201d Abromaitis says. \u201cBut understanding that he\u2019s going to support our country, it\u2019s just an honor to have him on my staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn says he started the nomination process while in Guam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually UConn as well as Deb, but Deb went above and beyond,\u201d Quinn says. \u201cUConn\u2019s [military leave] policies make it really nice, to not have to worry about having a job when you come back, and besides that I got 30 days of pay while deployed each year, which is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one less thing to worry about,\u201d says Beaudoin, also a UConn Health Center nurse, in the medical-surgery float pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd knowing that your employer is also communicating with your spouse or fianc\u00e9e, it takes a lot of the pressure and stress away,\u201d Quinn says. \u201cEven coming back, the transition was made easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

Follow the <\/i>UConn Health Center<\/i><\/a> on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>YouTube<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debra Abromaitis was presented with the Patriot Award, nominated by UConn Health Center nurse John Quinn after his second deployment in two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":81768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-81765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 08:06:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81765"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107111,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81765\/revisions\/107111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/81768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81765"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=81765"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=81765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}