August 19, 2021

Joy’s Blog: Dig Deep

Big Picture, Central, Clinical Partners, Rural Health

We are all facing incredible pressure and societal changes like no other time in our history – and some would argue we have been doing this for the past 18 months. For many, it’s hard to remember what things were like before COVID-19.

We have all experienced a range of emotions from sadness to frustration to anger to a deep sense of connectedness – and sometimes this happens all in one day! Tensions are high, people may be short with one another, or simply “just not themselves.” It is in these moments that I try to be purposeful – to re-center myself, my thinking, my energy, my words, my tone, my everything. Sometimes this is an easy thing to do and other times I have to dig deep within myself, or seek help from a trusted colleague or friend to help re-center.

As individuals who are part of a large organization, right now is a time where we need to dig deep. We must re-center around our purpose (to listen then serve, to guide and heal – because health means everything) and our relationships. We need each other. And we need to be intentional about supporting and helping each other as we serve our communities.

A fourth wave of the pandemic is here and in addition, we have other patients and residents to serve who need our care. We also continue to make improvements to processes and procedures to improve safety (on our journey toward high reliability) and our response to all these efforts must continue. This is a time when we must dig deep within ourselves to find our stamina, our joy, our love for what we do again and our continued commitment to support each other. We need each other like no other time in our history. Let’s dig deep together.

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