Gratitude

Every Sunday I check my Intermountain email for several reasons...I like to take a look before I go to work the next day and there is an employee newsletter they call "Stories" It has helpful tips to be less stressed at work, activities that are going on within the region that I work, sometimes there are recipes, feel good stories...you get the idea. With this letter there is almost always a link on the webpage from Dr. Sorensen who is the CEO of Intermountain Healthcare and an option for employees to share an idea or thought.

I love that employee opinions are important to Intermountain...what a great company. However that is not really what this post is about. It is about one of the ideas that I read online yesterday from a fellow employee. She said that to keep stress at a minimum in her life she takes the time each day to right in a gratitude journal...Oprah recommended it years ago...and I didn't do it. I read another blog recently where the writer spent 40 days writing about what she was grateful for...I didn't follow in her footsteps. This time I'm going to give it a go.

There is no promise it will be written in my blog everyday but I promise for at least a month to write down what I am grateful for everyday. My gratitude starts today!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work on the oncology unit at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. I am truly grateful for the opportunity. To be perfectly honest I grumbled when I called the staffer in the morning and found out where I was going. I then pushed the murmuring me to the side and pulled on my scrubs and headed to work. My first rounds I was in my second patients room and he was just as cheerful and happy and GRATEFUL as anyone I have ever met. It rocked me to my core that this man who is fighting for his life could be so happy and full of gratitude. We talked about tennis and he showed me a video of Fedderer (is that how you spell it?) at the US Open last year and an amazing shot that he made. This patient fed my soul and in turn I hope that I was able to share that with the other 5 patients and all the staff that I worked with.
I shed tears as I was talking to one of the nurses and she expressed her appreciation for me being there. I was embarrassed and explained that I had grumbled when I was assigned on this unit and how amazed I am that she can work there everyday. It is absolutely not that the patients are terrible. In fact, I think some of the worst patients I have had that are in the hospital for a couple of days that act like there life is just terrible should have to see what these patients go through. They LIVE in the hospital for no less than 10 days the first time they are there. When they come back for treatments later it may be a "little" as a week that they are there. Through it all they are grateful for the care they receive. What a great lesson for me.

I hope you can find something in your day to be grateful for.

Until next time...