For the first time ever, the Lois Fairley Nurse of the Year Community Service Award recipient is a male nurse.
Douglas Mercer received the award Friday morning at Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus.
The soft-spoken Mercer has been a nurse for 24 years starting in the emergency room at Grace Hospital.
He was transferred to Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital and is now at Windsor Regional Hospital.
Mercer says he was simply following in his mother's footsteps.
"My mother was a nurse and she got me a summer job in 1991, as an orderly in the emergency room and I watched all the people working around me and I knew I wanted to work in the hospital," he says.
He graduated from the nursing program at St. Clair College in 1994.
Although it is a tough professional, he has never regretted becoming a nurse.
"I have always enjoyed it, I go home all the time just enjoying what I have done during the day."
Mercer says he learned a valuable lesson early on in his career.
"I was taught by some nurses, they always said the calmer you are, the easier things go and that panic creates panic."
He says when he first heard he had won the award, he thought it was his colleagues playing a trick on him.
He was nominated by his colleagues who described him as highly knowledgeable, skilled and compassionated at all times and is never too busy to help a patient.
The award is named after the late local nurse, mentor and advocate for the profession.