The Westview News

Press Release
Employee of the Month
Date
March 10, 2023

     Catrina Vanasse was recognized at Westview Health Care Center as their January Employee of the Month. Catrina performs her role as a housekeeper with great personal pride at the Dayville, CT skilled nursing facility. When discussing her position, she frequently reiterates her understanding that Westview is not only a skilled care setting—but that it is home for all of the patients and residents within. She finds great importance in preserving the cleanliness and pleasantness for all of the individuals present at Westview on a given day. Knowing how important it is to maintain that standard, she works closely with her colleagues in housekeeping, support services, and all of the departments that she needs to collaborate with to achieve this stated goal.

     Catrina joined the Westview team in October 2021, and she shares pride with her colleagues for the strength that they have shown persevering through recent years. In her own words, Catrina states that she loves to clean. She finds peace maintaining her spaces to feel fresh, neat, and organized. This is especially important to her as she considers the skilled nursing setting of Westview Health Care Center. Catrina acknowledges the vital importance of sanitization and hygienic cleaning around the facility while simultaneously placing additional focus on preserving the aesthetics of the patients’ and residents’ residence. She approaches her role in housekeeping as if the patients and residents are her own family, and this forms her personal standard of performance at Westview. She elaborated on this thought, commenting how she and the whole housekeeping team carry out their duty with dedication:

     “To be a housekeeper in a skilled nursing facility like Westview, you have to have compassion and heart. We all work here to take care of others’ loved ones—individuals that they may not be able to care for. We take the responsibility to continue their family love in our work,” Catrina commented. She knows that the decision to admit a loved one into a skilled nursing setting can be a tough decision for many families. There is great joy she finds in knowing that her efforts offer families the opportunity to visit their kin at Westview with peace and calm surrounding the setting.

     Catrina maintains the same standard of freshness in her own residence in Putnam, CT. In addition to her role at Westview, Catrina is an independent consultant for “Pink Zebra,” a company that creates scented soy wax melts to generate aromatic atmospheres for their clientele. She really enjoys learning about marketing their non-toxic aromatherapy products, and is personally pleased with the way these scents preserve her spaces with the air of a fresh, spring day.

     She has called Putnam home for most of her life; currently living there with her husband Dennis, and in close proximity to her daughter Hannah and her son Nathan. Her son Zach and his girlfriend Kirsten live in nearby Pomfret, CT, and they have recently expanded the Vanasse family joy with the birth of their daughter Olivia. Two more sons, Alex and Xavier, serve in the United States Navy and instill Catrina’s family with patriotic pride. Alex’s 8 years of service and Xavier’s 3 years of service have led to long chapters in-between full-family gatherings. All more reasons that Catrina celebrated her recent visits with her sons—the first in several years. She and her loved ones know that being a military family is different, and that they all accept the collective sacrifices necessary to preserve American life and liberty. For many years, Catrina enjoyed attending bingo at the Garden City Baptist Church in Ballouville, CT as an activity with her mother, sister, and grandmother. She continues to appreciate this good, clean, wholesome fun with her mother and sister—and likes the way that these game nights support the church.

     Upon receiving this recognition from Westview, Catrina expressed gratitude for the recognition among her peers: “I feel truly grateful that I am appreciated as Westview’s Employee of the Month. I want to take a moment to thank all of my wonderful coworkers that recognize my hard work and dedication!” She went on to reiterate her personal passion for tidy quarters: “I enjoy cleaning the residents’ and patients’ rooms that I am assigned to on a daily basis. Westview is their home, and they deserve the best, cleanest, highest quality conditions all around them at all times. I am honored to do what I do.”

     David T. Panteleakos, Administrator of Westview Health Care Center, greatly values Catrina’s approach to carefully maintaining the places and spaces at Westview. “Catrina is such a great addition to our amazing housekeeping department! She is an integral member of our housekeeping dream team that maintains our facility’s five-star appearance and environment of care. Congratulations to Catrina!”

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.