What a week Respiratory Care week was!
Wow, what a week National Respiratory Care Week was! I hope you had as much fun and excitement as my staff and I did during this wonderful week where we have an opportunity to express our appreciation to staff members for the outstanding work they do every day throughout the year.
I started this wonderful and exciting week with a visit to the RT Students at Victor Valley College, Victorville, CA. I presented what I hope were some valuable words of wisdom as they begin a new career and profession-- as well as a few gifts welcoming them to our exciting profession.
I also brought with me a recent RT graduate who gave them some suggestions on the difference between being a student and being a licensed RCP and what they really needed to concentrate on before they graduated.
The highlight of this activity was introducing them to the President of the California Society for Respiratory Care and allowing the students to interact and ask questions.
At the hospital, we had two wonderful and delicious catered lunches for both the day and night shifts. Our CEO attended one of those lunches and suggested that we ought to have a catered lunch everyday during RC Week in the future. That sounded like a direct order and we shall comply.
In addition to the delicious food, we also had gifts of appreciation for everyone as well as "Certificates of Recognition," Certificates of Excellence," and "Certificates of Leadership" that recognized something "special" about each staff member. One of the gifts given to everyone (including our administration) was a scrub top with a picture of a rib cage and lungs. Most of my staff wore them every day during RC Week.
We did something different this year and sponsored a hospital-wide chili cook-off with prizes for the three top winning recipes. We had so many people wanting to enter their "award-winning" recipes that we had to finally stop taking entries. We even had a couple of medical staff physicians enter!
It was an excellent activity that brought visibility to the Respiratory Care Department. We had a wonderful turn-out and served about a third of the hospital staff with some of the best chili I've ever eaten. We also served delicious cornbread and a soda with each bowl of chili.
One large crock pot of chili that went very quickly was the one made with buffalo meat. We also had chili made with elk meat and we had rumors that someone was going to bring chili made with rattlesnake meat, but that didn't materialize.
Everyone had an opportunity to sample any chili they wanted and then they voted for the one they thought was the best. It was a huge success and our CEO suggested that we do it on a monthly basis. I don't think we will, but we might make this an annual event.
The highlight of the week, of course, was recognizing and announcing the individual that received the Respiratory Care Practitioner of the Year Award. This individual has work at our facility for 25 years, graduated at the top of his RT Class, and has received both the "Employee of the Quarter Award" as well as the "Meritorious Award" from the hospital in the past. He is a very knowledgeable, highly skilled, and well-trained respiratory therapist. It was our privilege to honor him with this prestigious award.
Because Halloween came at the end of our official Respiratory Care Week this year, we joined a crescendo of other hospital activities that climaxed a wonderful week with a craft fair, costume awards (I got to wear my "Cat in the Hat" costume), scary decorations, good food, and lots of fun and excitement. We had unexpected visit from our CEO to our department who personally handed each employee an unexpected and surprising bonus check.
What a week! I hope your Respiratory Care Week was as successful with as much fun and excitement as ours.