Inspiring and powerful

The theme this week seems to be "giving back" or "paying it forward." Here is another chapter.

Every Monday morning, I have the pleasure of welcoming new employees of BIDMC at an orientation session we hold for them. Later, there is a section in the program when we ask the new employees to think about a time they may have gone to a hospital for themselves or accompanied a loved one. In thinking about the experience, we then ask them to evaluate whether it was positive (and what made it so) or did not go well and what could have improved it.

Here's a note from the group leader, Lynda, about what happened this week:

Depending on the audience, some weeks we get all kinds of responses and then sometimes people are more reticent. This week, the audience was a bit quiet so I piped in with my own experience of having just gone through significant experiences of my own and how the kindness that I received from staff made a difference in my healing. I asked the group if anyone could “top that”.

A woman in the audience raised her hand and proceeded to tell all of us about the time, 4 years ago, when her father who was a patient here, was dying. She choked back tears as she told about her family all being there and the staff making sure everyone had a place to sleep and food to eat around the clock and whatever else they needed. They were apparently there for a number of days but went through the experience together as a family, with their father, being totally supported by the staff.

Then she added that she decided she wanted to come and work here in order to be able to give others the kind of experience she had here and to work with these remarkable people.

All in all, tearful and inspiring and powerful for all of us present.