Houston Northwest Medical Center announced today that Esther Valdez, a veteran nurse in The Breast Center, has been inducted into the Tenet Heroes Hall of Fame, Tenet Healthcare Corp.’s (NYSE: THC) highest award for caregivers at its hospitals.

For 35 years, Valdez has been providing exceptional care to her patients. The last nine years she’s been working with patients and survivors at Houston Northwest’s Breast Center. She has become known for always providing extraordinary care to help patients and their families through difficult times. Valdez has solidified and increased membership in the breast cancer survivors support group at Houston Northwest, “Care, Share and Be Aware.” She has also reached out to the Hispanic community in Houston to teach them about the importance of getting mammograms and performing monthly self-exams.

“Our Tenet Hero winners represent the best of who we are at Tenet and what we do as health care providers in the communities we serve,” said Trevor Fetter, Tenet’s president and chief executive officer. “The passion and quality of care provided by dedicated professionals like Esther serve as an inspiration to us all.”

Valdez is one of nine people named into this year’s Heroes Hall of Fame. This year’s recipients were chosen out of dozens of compelling nominations. Tenet Heroes award winners are nominated by their hospital’s leadership team and selected based on their expertise in providing clinical care, examples of extraordinary patient care, and comments from colleagues, patients and their families, and physicians.