1.2 million days of service amongst them!
Many of those celebrating 25+ years of service
Congratulations to the 190 people in Richmond who reached a service milestone during 2012! Your commitment and contributions are truly appreciated.
We held our annual celebration event last week to recognize our valued and most “seasoned” team members. It’s an important annual event for us; a highlight of the year in Richmond that is much anticipated by many. It’s also a good opportunity to see our colleagues dressed as normal people instead of in healthcare scrubs.
In addition to enjoying a few treats, a chance to catch up with friends and colleagues, and present the service anniversary pins, the event also provided us with an opportunity to learn more about our longest serving colleagues, those with 25 or more years of employment. Here are just a few of the highlights:
Agnes Valera, a community health worker for 30 years says that she loves her job; she loves the elderly and cares deeply about keeping them well in their homes. Also interesting to find out that she sings and dances with a Polynesian group in her spare time.
Catherine Kitty Dube, a registered nurse in Critical Care has also worked with us for 30 years. Kitty knew she wanted to be a nurse since she was 5 years old! She enjoys her job and sees it an opportunity to make a difference in a patient’s stay. She is kind and compassionate, and always tried to make life better for her patients. A devoted mother, she has worked permanent nights since her two sons were born.
Being a numbers kind of guy I want to share some very impressive employment milestone numbers with you . . .
Last year in Richmond, a total of 190 people reached a service milestone of 10, 15, 20 all the way up to 40 years!. Of those 149 are staff; 16 are Auxilians; and 25 are physicians.
Together, those 190 people contributed 3, 395 years of employment to VCH and its predecessors. Or, put another – even more impressive – way . . . it works out to about 1,240,023 ¾ days of service!! 190 people; 1.2 million days of work – talk about hard working!!
Ted Roosevelt once said “ Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
In healthcare, it’s a given that we work hard and we are lucky enough to work hard at WORK WORTH DOING . . .
We deliver babies, set fractured bones, save lives, perform surgery, teach classes, preceptor students and new employees, give flu shots, develop systems, manage payrolls, volunteer at the gift and thrift shops, and complete the thousands of other tasks that go into providing quality care to the thousands of patients, clients and residents that depend on us each year.
Those who we are here to celebrate have been doing this WORK WORTH DOING for a long time. You bring valuable skills, knowledge and experience to the Richmond team. You have helped create, shape, and maintain the culture that Richmond is famous for: strong, interdisciplinary teamwork, quality, safe care and service, innovation, and respectful workplace are some of the words that come to mind.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Senior Executive Team of Vancouver Coastal Health, as well as the Senior Leadership Team of VCH-Richmond, I would like to thank each of those celebrating an employment milestone for your commitment to VCH and to the patients, clients and residents we serve.
I would also like to thank my co-presenter Brenda Wagner, for the excellent job she did co-MCing the event. Other people deserving a big thank you are event organizer, Janet Prins and those who assisted: Ana Himani, Katrina Iliakis, Sylvia Groenewegen, Patti Etkin, Christy Ellis and Maureen Malanchuk.
