I was out for my usual jog…well, I guess I need to be honest, it was more of a walk than a jog, but we will call it a jog/walk. So, I was on my jog/walk and listening to different podcasts. A big interest of mine is sports, all sports. On this particular day, I was listening to Colin Cowherd.
Colin is an American sports media personality who has a three-hour radio show called The Herd. At the end of the day, he puts out a podcast condensed to 30 minutes called The Best of the Herd. I had my wireless headphones on listening to him play a clip from an offensive lineman of the New Orleans Saints who was retiring.
I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and could not tell you more than one of the Saints’ offensive linesman names, so I was wondering why Colin was taking precious time from his radio show to recognize an offensive lineman who was retiring.
Well, then it happened, “it made me stop” as I listened to this retirement speech. This lineman, Zach Strief, took the majority of the time during his speech to recognize and thank their quarterback, Drew Brees, for his leadership and his countless hours of work to make sure he provided his team the best opportunity to win. Zach said, “My greatest drive as a player was not to let you down [Drew].”
We are not playing a football game, but we have been entrusted to schedule a patient, perform an exam, do a surgery, pass a meal tray or care for the patient at the bedside.
With this trust, each of our patients and their loved ones have entrusted us to not let them down. That is, to go that extra step, do that extra act of kindness, to help them get through perhaps a tough or scary time in their lives. So let’s continue to look for opportunities to have our patients “stop” and say wow to the care and compassion provided by each of you!
Talk soon, Jason
Watch the speech here>