Haile Gold Mine Occupational Health Nurse Cindi Blackmon won the Nurse of the Year award at a recent conference of the South Carolina Association of Occupational Health Nurses (SCAOHN).
The award, voted on by the SCAOHN Board of Directors, served as recognition of Blackmon’s innovative work to develop new ways for employees to access the programs they need.
Haile’s Safety Glasses program, for example, now provides employees with better-fitting safety glasses and a wider array of options thanks to Blackmon.
Over the past two years, Blackmon also helped the company continue to prosper through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. She corresponded with 855 employees and contractors with positive and presumptive cases to offer assistance, such as helping them find testing and vaccination locations.
Blackmon said she appreciates Haile’s willingness to support various wellness options for employees.
“I’m blessed to work at a place that allows me to schedule onsite flu clinics, schedule the COVID vaccine clinics, schedule the lab work, and EKGs,” Blackmon said. “Everything we have done, somebody benefited from because they found out something they didn’t know about their health.”
SCAOHN presented the award to Blackmon on Sept. 30 during the organization’s fall conference at the Wild Dunes Resort on the Isle of Palms. Blackmon said she was honored to receive the recognition and commended other nurses for their own efforts.
“Every healthcare provider, especially in the last two years, makes a commitment when you decide that’s what you want to do as an occupation,” Blackmon said. “You just show up every day and give it your best shot.”
Blackmon joined Haile Gold Mine in January 2016 after spending 25 years as an Occupational Health Nurse at Bowater. She has worked in the nursing field since 1980 and is a lifelong resident of the Kershaw area.
