Respiratory Care Week 2009 Coming Soon
It seems as though we were celebrating Respiratory Care Week 2008 only a couple of weeks ago. Now the 2009 version looms on the horizon. How quickly another year has flown by.
One of my sons-in-law told me the reason the years seem to fly by faster as we grow older is that when you are 5 years old, one year represents 20 percent of your life, but when you are 40 years old, one year represents 2.5 percent. At age 70, one year represents only 1.4 percent of your life. Each year goes by faster because each year represents less and less time of your life.
I don't know whether that's true or not, but the years do seem to go by more quickly as we get older.
In five weeks we will celebrate Respiratory Care Week 2009. Although I believe we should show our appreciation to our staff throughout the year, this is the one week we can pay special tribute to our therapists who serve our patients so well throughout the year.
We make an effort here to have a least two catered luncheons during this special week. In addition, we recognize one individual as our very own "Respiratory Care Practitioner of the Year" and award that individual with a special trophy, a basket of goodies, a gift certificate to a fine dinning place, a name engraved on a permanent plaque that hangs in the main hallway of our department and an all-expense paid trip to the state respiratory care convention each year.
There also is a nice write-up in our local hospital newsletter. In addition, we have gifts of appreciation and awards for everyone, and our local newspapers print nice articles in their papers about respiratory care.
I think all of us are interested in what other departments do to celebrate Respiratory Care Week, and I hope you will be willing to share those activities with all of us.