Melissa Fox named 2019 Pediatric Hero Award

Melissa Fox, emergency department clinical nurse at IU Health Arnett Hospital was recently awarded the 2019 Pediatric Hero Award. The award is for nominee’s who provide extraordinary care within the areas of dispatch emergency care, public safety, pre-hospital care, emergency hospital care, community leadership and pediatric community advocacy work.

Fox was nominated for this award by Benton County EMS Director Jason Fisher for her work with Every 15 Minutes.

As the chair of the Benton County Every 15 Minutes program, she spearheaded the organization of the program from start to finish. While working closely with school administrators and public safety partners, Melissa has created an ongoing program to provide the high impact program to kids at Benton Central. The program while initially centered on impaired driving, also highlights good decision making, texting and driving and the potential results of those decisions. From start to end the three month process involves much work coordinating the many aspects of the program. Heavily involving and engaging parents and students to play the various roles is the main focus of the program – students making choices that will impact the rest of their lives as well as others around them. Whether it was a donation for food, coordinating an overnight retreat, getting the students to act their part or even coordinating a helicopter for a flight, Melissa made sure the details of the program would have a lasting impact on Benton Centrals student lives. Involved students live the results in various ways for example, being arrested, court, being treated at the ER and being a fatality victim, all while not having contact with friends or family for a day. While many of the details are frivolous, the hope of the program is to impact as many as possible through the simulated, but realistic encounters the students face. Melissa puts well more than her a whole effort into making this program a success.

Congratulations to Melissa Fox for living the IU Health Way every day.