VC Notes - A weekly word from Dr. LouAnn Woodward
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Friday, December 21, 2018

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. 

vc_Dec_21_Holidays.jpgAt 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.

Signed, Lou Ann Woodward, M.D.

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