“There is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”- Winnie the Pooh
With the uncertainty of the times, what we know for sure is that our Healthcare workers are doing what has always been done best – providing care. Going forward, healthcare must keep that focus and continue to just provide care. Care is for both the patients and families impacted by the outbreak, but also we need to show care to the workers and their families during this crisis. Emotional support goes a tremendous way. We must allow a co-worker the chance to just vent or let them know they are cared for, this will make the hours of service worth every minute. We must let our colleagues know they are brave, they are strong and they are definitely smart – all these things need verbalized to our colleagues and friends during these times.
In preparing for the future, healthcare has forever changed. We need to begin to plan for the future by documenting all activities, resources, waivers and other emergency responses to the outbreak in order to ‘tell’ the story when looking back at all that went on. For today, simply print all the regulatory changes, care guidelines and what has been done internally in your organization and place these documents into one large binder. Reviewing them can wait for another day.
From my past – Semper Fi. Which means (always faithful) or (always loyal). Stay faithful to the task at hand – Providing Care.