The Gift of Caring

Good morning and Season’s Greetings to all of UMMC!

During the next 12 days, I hope all of you will be able to take some time to be with family and friends and to recharge your batteries.  As always, I especially appreciate all of our faculty, staff and students in all of our missions and throughout UMMC who will be working during the holidays.  Thank you. 

At this time of year, I often reflect on the little things (and some not so little) we do for our patients and each other that demonstrate our caring spirit.  In a past VC Notes, I told the story of some of our nurses who bought a young patient a set of warm pajamas with their own money.  For many years, our senior administrators in the adult hospital have chipped in to buy all the Christmas presents for a needy family.  Only last week, faculty and staff with Children’s of Mississippi donated gift cards and personal items to the 169 students of a Delta middle school.  And just the other day I learned of one of our employees who paid for the food of a visitor who didn’t have the money to pay herself.    

Kindnesses such as these – and many more than these – are demonstrated every day at our UMMC facilities, and not necessarily just at Christmas.  I appreciate not only that they occur, but that they set an example of selfless behavior that we all can celebrate.

As I have said before in VC Notes, this caring spirit is part of who we are, what distinguishes us as health care professionals and – because this spirit is so pervasive in our faculty, staff and students – what sets us apart from others.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  If Christmas is not the tradition you celebrate, then I hope you enjoy this time with your family and loved ones.  Caring for each other and our fellow citizens, we will create A Healthier Mississippi.