At St. Mary’s Medical Center, two nurses were honored for the kind of work that rarely fits neatly into a job description: holding a dying baby so she would not be alone and building a life around children facing abuse, addiction and instability.
Marsha Powell, a neonatal intensive care nurse, and Melissa Brouillette, an emergency room nurse, were inducted into the Tenet Healthcare Hall of Fame during a West Palm Beach recognition ceremony, according to WPBF 25 News. Their families attended as the hospital celebrated two careers defined by compassion both inside and outside the medical center.
Marsha Powell’s Quiet Final Act In The NICU
Powell has spent 22 years working in the NICU, where even experienced nurses can face moments that have no easy clinical fix. Tenet describes its Hall of Fame as the company’s highest employee honor, recognizing people whose service reaches beyond their ordinary responsibilities, according to Tenet Healthcare.
Powell was recognized after comforting a baby who was dying while no mother was present. She held the child, offered reassurance and told her it was okay to go — a moment that underscored how nursing sometimes means providing dignity and human connection when medicine can no longer change the outcome.
Melissa Brouillette’s Work With Vulnerable Children
Brouillette’s recognition reflects a different, but equally personal, form of service: helping children affected by substance abuse and domestic violence. She and her husband have adopted four children, and she is also the mother of four biological children, WPTV reported.
Her experience caring for children extends well beyond the hospital, where she works in the emergency department. Brouillette has fostered roughly two dozen children, and she has said she hopes her children — rather than any title or award — will be her lasting legacy.
The two nurses’ stories are different, but the message from the ceremony was consistent: extraordinary care is often found in the moments that never make a chart. Powell and Brouillette said they were simply doing what they believed was right, while their families and colleagues made clear that those choices mattered.
