The Westview News

Press Release
Employee of the Month
Date
February 24, 2023

     Joanne Franklin, LPN earned esteem as the Employee of the Month at Westview Health Care Center in December 2022. She helps to provide direct nursing care to patients and oversight of her team members when she is stationed as Charge Nurse at the Dayville skilled nursing facility’s North Wing. Joanne’s wealth of knowledge and experience is complemented by her hands-on determination towards life. Her strong dedication to patient care is exhibited by her reliable readiness to perform her role at Westview—whether it is a warm, sunny day or amid a blustery, winter blizzard. Her own journey in health care has a strong foundation through her family’s bond with Westview Health Care Center across the decades.

     Joanne is a lifelong resident of Killingly. She presently lives along the waterways near the Connecticut and Rhode Island border; proudly declaring “I’ve only moved about one mile in my whole life!” Directly after graduating from Killingly High School, she enrolled at Windham Technical School to gain her nursing licensure. In 1966 she began working as a licensed practical nurse at Day Kimball Hospital. Within her time at the hospital, she ultimately moved to the Intensive Care Unit and learned a great deal about working with a close-knit team of nurses. After 5 years in these acute care settings, she went on to become a home care provider for her family. Over the next 18 years, she attended to that role while also maintaining a chicken farm. In January of 1999, she decided to return to a health care setting by joining the staff at Westview. Twenty-four years later (and counting!) they are proud to have Joanne as a longstanding member of their caregiving team. Connecting the separate landmarks of Joanne’s health care career is a common tidewater: her family’s legacy in providing care at Westview.

     Her mother, Frances, was a certified nursing assistant at Westview when Joanne was a teenager; working the overnight shift in the east wing. Joanne’s sister Suzanne was also employed at Westview in a vital position as the Director of Nursing. Westview’s dual-meaning mantra of “caring for generations” certainly describes Joanne and her kin. Joanne’s brothers Gerald and Robert live nearby in the quiet corner and she expresses great pride in their careers in home building and welding fabrication, respectively. Her two sons, Benjamin and Daniel bring her joy, and that joy is amplified by the 5 grandchildren she cherishes. In the warmer months she enjoys gardening and landscaping; maintaining her flowers and shrubs, and she is particularly happy while riding her zero-turning radius lawnmower around her yard. Joanne is an avid traveler, touring Europe during multi-destination adventures between several countries on that continent. She has been all over the United States as well; traveling as far away as Hawaii and visiting her cousins in Nebraska when possible. Nevertheless, when she is asked what her favorite destination is, she points to the ground—acknowledging Killingly proper—and declares: “Right here!”

     Joanne is well celebrated by her colleagues at Westview, yet still, she exhibited genuine amazement in achieving this distinction. “I was very surprised on the day I received this award. I arrived to work and our Director of Nursing, Cindy Olsen, asked if she could speak with me. When we arrived upstairs and opened the door, the staff was all there congratulating me. What an honor—what a surprise!”

     The Administrator of Westview, David T. Panteleakos, has known Joanne since arriving as administrator in 2001 and is thrilled to know she has gained this acknowledgement among her peers. “Joanne is not only an important role player in our nursing hierarchy, but she is also a great person and a great role model of consistency, compassion, and caregiving for all of our staff to witness.” Mr. Panteleakos went on to add: “I am so impressed with her dedication across decades in health care, and I am so proud to have her as a long-standing member of our amazing team. We can always count on her to be the best patient advocate for those entrusted to her care. Congratulations to Joanne for this long overdue recognition!”

Westview Health Care Center is a 103-bed inpatient skilled nursing facility, which includes a distinct and self-contained 28-bed sub-acute short term rehabilitation unit and outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapies including: Sports Medicine, Adolescent/Pediatric, Adult, and Aquatic Outpatient Centers, all dedicated to providing outstanding quality health care services. The Dayville, Connecticut facility is consistently ranked among the top nursing facilities in the nation, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as well as U.S. News and World Report, consecutively for the past years.