BLOOMFIELD (March 31, 2025) – iCare Health Network is pleased to announce that the Connecticut Chapter of the American Association of Health Care Administrators 2025 inductees to the Connecticut Certified Nursing Assistant Hall of Fame included Touchpoints at Bloomfield’s Marva Smith.
Marva has been a CNA at Touchpoints at Bloomfield for 38 years. Her nomination letter detailed the many reasons Marva has earned this honor throughout her years of service:
It is with the greatest of pleasure that Touchpoints At Bloomfield nominates Marva Smith to be considered into the 2025 Connecticut Certified Nursing Assistant Hall of Fame. Marva Smith was hired 11/17/1986 and has been a dedicated member of our staff for the past 38 years.
There are so many examples of why we believe Marva should be inducted into this year’s Hall of Fame but from the words of her fellow coworkers: She is humble and kind, self-motivated, never idle, always willing to help out anyone who asks her to help, a dedicated leader and the absolute best of both worlds. In the years I have worked with her, I have never heard her complain about her co-workers, her assignment, if there is a staffing challenge on her unit or anything else. Her attitude is one of positivity, quiet determination and leadership with a “let’s get this done” philosophy.
When asking her co-workers what is one of the best characters of Marva’s they cannot answer with a specific but instead the overall statement that “she is truly just a good person all in all and an amazing C.N.A., stating that if I needed a C.N.A. to care for me- I could only hope that it would be Marva because I know that I would be in the best of hands”.
Marva was nominated many years ago as the care center’s very first Resident Council Staff Member of the month and per the resident council president today “She still has a genuine heart that just shines through even after all these years.” Marva has her own high standards of quality of care and shows it. During the COVID pandemic, snow storms and when there are callouts, she is one of the first staff members to volunteer to pick up extra shifts, stay for a double, or come in early to make sure the residents are well taken care of.
Marva is the facilities go to employee for mentoring of new C.N.A.’s. One recent new orient stated that “On my first day in the facility I was very nervous. Marva said to me – It’s ok sweetheart, I will show you what to do and be here to help you”. She made me feel so much better and I knew that even if I didn’t know something or made a mistake it would be ok. I want to be a C.N.A. just like her. Marva is the type of mentor that is able to educate new staff and guide them to be their absolute best and caring self while giving feedback that is never seen as being demeaning or critical. New staff thrive under her tutorship. To Marva, being a C.N.A. is not just a job – these residents are her family and she treats them as if they were her own loved ones.
Marva is dedicated to the quality of life of our residents – She will go out of her way to make the resident smile, comfortable and at home. You will often see Marva coming into the facility with food, clothing, personal care items or little trinkets that she knows will make the resident happy. She will take money out of her own pocket to pay for haircuts for residents who do not have the funds or family to do it for them.
One young prior resident who wants us to identify him as Albert stated that when he came to Touchpoints At Bloomfield he was in pretty rough shape and was angry and wouldn’t give the staff the time of day – I wasn’t very nice to her, I would curse at her and tried to drive her away. Marva was my C.N.A and she wouldn’t give up on me no matter how nasty I was to her. She never took what I said to her personally and was always respectful and kind to me. She challenged me, telling me that I could do more, be more then just laying here in bed giving up on myself and hating my life and the world.
Because of her I was able to be successfully discharged back home. It is because of her that I was able to hold my baby daughter who was born while I was a resident of TAB. She was able to take me on, one of the toughest of patients and my family and treated me with tough love but be nurturing at the same time. She found a way to motivate me to not give up on myself. She has a positive energy about her – like a little light and is just everyone’s favorite.
