It gives me great pleasure to nominate Ms. Carolyn Garlinski, Administrative Assistant, Infection Prevention and Control Unit, Health Sciences Centre for the Administrative Assistant of the Year. I have had the privilege of working with Carolyn for the past 24 years. Carolyn is the glue that holds all of our administrative activities together. Although Carolyn fulfills roles for both Shared Health and the University of Manitoba, it is impossible to separate the two as they are intimately interconnected. Carolyn’s positive attitude, and ability to always make near impossible tasks possible, have been the defining features of Carolyn’s abilities. I will summarize the major areas of Carolyn’s administrative activities as follow:

1. Teaching:
Carolyn is involved in helping to coordinate innumerable teaching activities, specifically, postgraduate activities such as Bug Day, Wound Day and Consultations in Infectious Diseases. For all of these programs, Carolyn is involved in liaising with presenters, soliciting abstracts, multiple choice questions and assembling the abstract booklet. While this might seem like a straight forward task it is actually exceptionally complicated and takes months for each program. In addition, Carolyn is involved coordinating the accreditation packages for each of these programs. In addition to postgraduate medical education, Carolyn also helps to coordinate my activities for undergraduate medical education, specifically, the Diabetic Foot Teaching Sessions that involve multiple tutors over multiple days. This also can be quite a challenging task as it involves liaising with innumerable tutors, and the administrative staff at the University of Manitoba. Carolyn is also responsible for organizing the Infection Prevention and Control orientation sessions for the International Medical Graduates, Physician Assistants and Med I. Carolyn organizes the tutors and teaching groups as well as oversees so that all the appropriate materials are available to the tutors. In addition to the activities for local programs as outlined above, Carolyn is also responsible for assisting with the accreditation for the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Prevention Surveillance Annual Symposium. This is a prestigious event which is a collaboration between the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Association of Medical Microbiologists and Infectious Diseases of Canada and of course, the University of Manitoba which is the accrediting body.

2. Manuscript and Presentation Preparation:
Since I do not actually type, I dictate any communication that needs to be prepared. As a result, Carolyn is involved in the preparation of scientific manuscripts that then undergo multiple cycles of editing, with our co-authors and myself. Carolyn helps to keep the various editions of the edits coordinated and collated. In addition to manuscript preparation, Carolyn is an expert at preparing PowerPoint presentations.

3. Accounts:
Carolyn is an expert with excel databases helping to manage our budgets and grants and liaising with the research staff at the University of Manitoba to ensure that appropriate bookkeeping and account reconciliation is undertaken.

4. Infection Prevention and Control Unit:
Activities for the Infection Prevention and Control (IP&C) Unit constitute a large proportion of Carolyn’s activities. Carolyn attends all of the Infection Prevention and Control Committee meetings, takes and edits the minutes. Carolyn is involved in the management of my schedule which at times is a incomprehensible and unsurmountable task given the number of conflicts and importance of many of the meetings. Carolyn is always able to find a way to squeeze in another meeting so that all our program administrative commitments can be met.

5. Patient Care:
While Carolyn’s job description never entailed interacting with the public or patient’s themselves, this slowly crept into Carolyn’s administrative activities as patient’s frequently do no know how to reach the outpatient clinic. As a result, Carolyn is an expert at diffusing tense situations with patients who may be frustrated with voicemail in the various clinics and who are seeking urgent attention. Carolyn’s calm and pleasant demeanor always helps to reassure patients that their issues will be addressed by the appropriate person whether it is our clinic staff or myself. On a number of occasions, Carolyn has been able to recognize serious patient concerns or that of family members and will immediately bring them to my attention and in so doing a number of patients have had positives outcomes because of her empathetic nature, ability to listen, and recognize when issues need to be addressed promptly.

6. Baby Sitter:
While Carolyn never imagined that she would spend her life chasing mature adults to appear for lectures, meetings, and presentations on time, she has become an expert at this task. Sadly, when Carolyn is away from the office, I struggle to keep my schedule under control despite all of her numerous reminders, and clear instructions.

7. Independent Thinker:
Carolyn works independently as I am often on the wards, in clinic or in meetings. Carolyn is able to prioritize assignments, and somehow manages to keep focused despite innumerable interruptions. Carolyn always seems able to complete the tasks requested of her by the end of each day. Carolyn is also a problem solver which allows her to deal with and resolve many issues without assistance from others.

8. Interpersonal Skills:
Perhaps what might set Carolyn above the rest is her excellent interpersonal skills. Over the years, there have been multiple members of our team. Carolyn has always been able to interact with all members in a friendly and professional manner. Carolyn is a team player and is happy to assist where ever and whenever possible. Although Carolyn reports directly to me, she assists the Infection Prevention and Control Practitioners whenever necessary and maintains a sense of calm regardless of juggling many tasks at once. Carolyn has also demonstrated that If something is of an urgent nature, she will stay until the task is completed. Carolyn also has an excellent rapport with the clinic staff and they are able to work seamlessly together.

Over the past 24 years, Carolyn and I have developed a relationship where we almost like dance partners. We anticipate each other’s moves and, Carolyn is always there to help anticipate problems before they occur, and quickly intervenes to ensure the efficient and timely running of our office.

On a personal note, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with Carolyn and I cannot think of a better person with whom to have worked for the past 24 years. I do hope that we have many years working together and that Carolyn’s undying commitment to her job continues.