“All About Gratitude”: VNSNY Hospice Celebrates a Momentous Year
VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care traditionally holds a springtime “All Staff Business Meeting” to review the previous year’s achievements. This year’s event, however, was something very different: Instead of a business meeting, the staff gathered for a celebratory luncheon, held at the Radisson Martinique Hotel on May 9th. “The past year was both a successful and a challenging one for everyone at VNSNY Hospice,” says Linda Megan, Vice President for Hospice Access. “So we wanted this year’s gathering to be all about gratitude, and taking a moment to thank our amazing staff for all their hard work and dedication.”
The luncheon’s theme was “A World of Thanks—Celebrating the Collective.” In all, 230 Hospice staff members attended, notes Linda, who organized the event along with fellow Hospice and Palliative Care employees Carol Seymour, RN Clinical Director for Queens and the Bronx, Joyce Bove, Administrative Assistant to Hospice SVP Rosemary Baughn, Michelle Drayton, Director for Hospice and Palliative Care Outreach in Manhattan and the Bronx, and Shannon Harris, Physician Fellowship and Medical Staffing Coordinator.
For the attendees, it was a chance to reflect on a year of considerable growth, in which VNSNY Hospice reached its largest census ever. At the same time, the division had the daunting task of being VNSNY’s first business unit to implement the organization’s new electronic medical records (EMR) system, HomeCare HomeBase. “We have accomplished so much together,” Rosemary Baughn, Senior Vice President of Hospice and Palliative Care, told the group—adding that, between ““rolling outa new EMR and the sheer pace of caring for over 1,000 patients and families every day, 2017 was one for the record.”
In addition to remarks by Rosemary and Marki Flannery, VNSNY’s President and CEO, managers and directors from across VNSNY Hospice presented their own kudos for their staff’s accomplishments over the preceding year. (To read these leaders’ tributes, click here.) “It was a very loving and joyful occasion,” says Linda.
Focusing on What Matters: VNSNY Hospice Joins International Initiative to Combat Professional Burnout
The Hospice spring luncheon also marked the kick-off of VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care’s participation in Creating Joy in the Workplace, an initiative developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. This international program, which is centered on the theme “What Matters to You in Your Daily Work Life,” aims to address the problem of burnout among healthcare professionals—something that’s become an increasing problem in recent years, for reasons ranging from perceived lack of respect to the growing burdens of record-keeping and productivity pressures.
As part of the launch, the luncheon attendees used Post-It notes to post answers to two basic questions: “what makes a good day at work,” and “what gets in the way of a good day.” Once these answers are collated, staff members will form teams to identify and test needed strategies, using improvement science techniques. The goal, noted Rosemary in announcing the initiative to the gathering, will be “to decrease the pebbles in our shoes, and find again what matters most to you.”
