Transcription:

Linda Stetter: Hello, chaplain Linda speaking here. First, I want to express my hope that the light and delight of the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays brought you moments of joy and that your celebrations have created new memories that will make you smile for years to come. As we bring in the New Year of 2023 with ongoing hopes of covid relenting and other viruses to lessen their grip on our daily lives. Let's pause to reflect on the challenges we encountered in 2022 and celebrate our wins. , I will offer just a few examples of the challenges we face together in 2022, and I am sure that you will remember some of your own, whether here at work or in your personal lives.

At the same time, I will offer kudos for the wins we can celebrate as we enter the new year. When we are challenged, we face circumstances that call us to engage in special effort or a contest of will and skill. As we achieve a measure of victory, we win over the challenge through our great labors and are entitled to celebrate each victory with appropriate fest. Of course, high on our list of challenges has been the steady battle against Covid, pneumonia, flu, and RSV Daily. We stretch resources thin to cover the needs of patients. In a time of national worker shortage, we continue to seek talented folks who will come aboard to share our mission.

We celebrate every unit and department where our dedicated caregivers on every level have worked extra shifts, lent a hand to training new caregivers, and we celebrate all who achieve new certifications. And every caregiver who accepted the challenge to work on a degree or certification as they balance demands of work and personal life. My memories are etched with the record number of patients, often beyond historic capacity, who were served daily by our emergency department and all of our clinics. We celebrate your heroic efforts.

Another big challenge came with the Kronos hack that affected paychecks of many hardworking caregivers for. We found out that we are not immune to the effects of technology nightmares over which we have no control. This situation took a toll of struggle, stress, and pain to those in our financial department, as well as for caregivers affected. We celebrate everyone who toughed out this horrible hacking act that came out of left field at the worst possible time. And we are grateful for our persistence. Persistence creates victory, and as time passes, I hope that the hurts of this situation can turn into personal celebrations.

For we are folks who try always to do the right thing, even in situations that are not our fault. This value alone is worth recognizing and celebrating as we have emerged from the most serious waves of Covid. We have many wins to celebrate now and through the coming years. Let's vow not to forget a single one. We are grateful for the unfailing hard work and guidance of our incident command team as we threaded our way through the time of worst Covid. As they are guiding us incrementally back to our new normal, we celebrate our willingness to deal with ambiguity and often changing rules.

We are people who can handle turning on a dime that is a win worthy of celebration in and of itself. What about the joy of installing a new true beam linear accelerator in the cancer center? From the chaos of Covid emerges a great win, a future of enhanced cancer care for our community for decades to come. And what about our Da Vinci robot that offers state-of-the-art surgeries? That is a huge win for our doctors and patients to celebrate now and into the future. And then there are the wins of recovering traditions that we loved and missed so dearly.

Here's a toast to in-person leadership meetings and committee meetings, to bake sales benefiting our sunshine fund to our in-person cancer walk. To the holiday, white elephant parties and potlucks. The list of wins can go on and on. I'm sure you know of some that may not be so public, but are nevertheless heartwarming and inspiring in your practice or on your caregiving circle. I can give more toast to computer upgrades, to drive up vaccinations in parking lots, to the blood drive that put a dent in our blood shortage, to the return of frontline leadership training that invests in our future leadership.

To welcoming back our hospital volunteers and the love of those wonderful therapy dogs, to being able to decorate the Christmas tree together. And for memorial services that honor, those who pass due to Covid are in honor of volunteers who have served our hospital with true loyalty to coat drives and families in need. Who received Christmas presents this year through multi-departmental generosity. We offer a toast to community partnerships renewed and for the employee engagement Committee who hosted the appreciation celebration under the tent and who gave time to ring Salvation Army bells and to be Santas elves.

So that the Angel Tree families had the right gifts for their children. Here's a toast to great catches and improvements in patient safety and to DAISY awards too . One of my most vivid recollections was of our successful DNV survey. In their final briefing, the panel commented something to the fact that our caregivers collaborate and step up to shoulder work to support each other. This is a big victory because I have never heard a regulatory body actually say what I just paraphrased to a hospital entity. Every instance of collaboration and support deserve a moment of gratitude and celebration.

As I heard the DMV words, I recalled the hundreds of Navy state sponsored and federal disaster caregivers, along with many able Travelers who came aboard to help our amazing core of volunteers sustain their efforts through the early months of 2020. overall, DMV found precious view concerns when you think about it. This is an astounding feat of dedication to care and detail, to have so many different people charting in our system so diligently. A lot of this success has to be attributed to the collaboration of our core caregivers who offered welcome and hospitality and help to those who came to us.

It proves that we are a place of openness, a win that deserves many kudos and celebrations. The list of wins can go on and on as the new year speeds toward us. We know though that we will always face challenges in the world of healthcare. Once upon a time, I asked a pastor's wife who was a psych nurse in a large facility, how she had kept hope and. After seeing chronically mentally ill patients come back in time after time, throughout her 23 years of service, and she said, you have to learn to celebrate even the tiniest of victories each day. And she went on afterwards to serve another 20 years before retiring.

Taking her advice therefore, let us together make a New Year's resolution to face challenges and to intentionally pair every victory, every win with celebration, small or great. The energy and vitality that is a byproduct of celebration will keep our resilience banks topped off and ready for the next adventure. We all chose to offer lives of sacrifice in healthcare to make a difference in the lives of our community folks, throughout 2022, despite the challenge, we added another year to the legacy of compassionate care at SJRMC.

Every morning in the huddle, we hear numerous compliments from patients who affirm the wonderful effective care they have received here from all departments. This is proof positive that individually and together on every shift, we make life better here. So thanks for being who you are and for all that you. In 2023, may you and all beings for whom you care and love, be blessed with wellbeing, prosperity, much love, and avenues for service to others. And above all, may you receive inward peace. Thanks for listening today and for walking down memory lane to a really successful 2022. I look forward to seeing you all in the halls this week and to seeing you as we bring in 2023.