The Rising Star Award recognizes the contributions of an employee from any discipline, who is new to his/her profession (within the last 3 years) and has made an impact in his/her years of service.
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Carissa Affeldt is an Infection Preventionist/Education Coordinator at McIntosh Senior Living, a nursing home in McIntosh, MN. Carissa has worked in senior care for five years, two of those at McIntosh Senior Living. Nominated by Tricia Hove, Director of Nursing, here is what Heidi had to say about this year’s Rising Star award recipient:

Carissa started working for us on September 9, 2017, as an RN Infection Preventionist/Education Coordinator. With the recent COVID-19, she has been a godsend to help make policies and educate staff. Carissa has stayed positive during these challenging times and has been a “ray of light” to help staff though all the changes. Just when we thought we understood the new change, they would change again, and with a smile, she would just rewrite the policy for the update.

No matter what is going on or how much Carissa has on her plate of things to get done, if she is asked to do something her reply is always, “Of course, yes I can do that.” She is a positive team player and leader and is always willing to help and to learn new things. She is like a sponge and feeds off on gaining knowledge. (I thought I was a competitive person, but Carissa is very competitive, so she encourages me to do even better as well. She initiated a chili cook off to raise money for our QAPI program and raised over $500. Her competitiveness showed that day when she won and will not share her recipe in the event we have another cook off!)

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Carissa is always positive—it doesn’t matter what the situation is—she is always finds a way to spin it in a positive way! It is kind of annoying, but what a great trait to have at our facility. She sees the good in EVERYTHING. Her nickname is “Care Bear” with her positivity and being kind to all.

Carissa assisted our facility in setting a training programs going for CPR, CNA, and TMA in a short amount of time. With these trainings, we receive calls from people all over who need their CPR updated. The CNA and TMA classes were a positive addition to McIntosh Senior Living and helped with the facility staffing problem.

Carissa always has her team on her mind—even how to help with public relations! She will come to work and say, “Last night I came up with a cute jingle…”, or “I thought of a really cute game to play for infection control this weekend…” Yes, the jingle was for staff to sing for an ad on the radio station at Christmas. REALLY, but we did it because you can’t say no to the “Care Bear”.



Comments from a co-worker:
Carissa has taken on her role with ease for such a huge and vital part in the long-term care industry. Her willingness to help any one of her co-workers in need and her thoughts of no job is too big to tackle is incredibly refreshing. She has promoted McIntosh with such uniqueness—with Tic Tok dances for the residents to watch, promoting our facility on Facebook, getting our name out there on billboards, giving educational tips on the radio station for “Food for Thought,” or written Christmas jingles for staff to sing for job ads for the radio—all with getting involvement from the residents, staff and family involvement. We have all done things for videos for Carissa that we would normally not do. Carissa deserves this award for all she has accomplished in her role here as well as a great contributor, tremendous leader, and compassionate friend to all residents. The 'Rising Star' award is Carissa Affeldt.