Our Newest Employees

This morning, as is the case the second Monday of each month, I had the opportunity to welcome our newest employees to WMHS.  We had a large group this AM with about 50 in attendance.  I usually open with a welcome, a congratulations for being selected as an employee of WMHS and a thanks for selecting us since many have the opportunity to choose where they want to work.  I then ask them to introduce themselves and tell the group a little about themselves and where they are going to work at WMHS.  I also ask them to tell me how they are going to apply our Mission Statement, "superior care for all we serve," in their daily work at WMHS.  

Well, this morning I couldn't have started off with a better person than James, our new director of Health Information Management.  He was excellent in his response to each question and set the tone for the rest of the group.  What usually takes about 20 minutes took almost 50 minutes today.  I learned so much about these folks, more so than at any past orientation.  I was introduced to a number of individuals who changed careers and who are now in health care and loving it.  There were a  number of employees who worked at WMHS previously and are returning (they are my favorites).  I met a lot of new graduates from Allegany College of Maryland (ACM) in mostly nursing, but also in occupational therapy and coding.  

There were great answers to the mission application questions from new EVS employees, patient transportation escorts, food service workers, geriatric nursing assistants and lab techs.  Explaining how their job is going to fulfill our mission can be more challenging and their answers were excellent.  

My favorite answer of this morning's session came from Michele, a newly hired nurse, who said that she decided to come to work for WMHS after reviewing our website.   In her review, she learned of our care delivery model being based on value and she said that care model made the most sense to her so this was the place where she wanted to work.  Since there were so many newly graduated nurses from ACM, I asked what they were being taught about valued-based care delivery.  Their response was that they learned about value-based care delivery during their clinical time at WMHS.  They said that all of their nurse preceptors and pretty much anyone with whom they come in contact when at WMHS was well versed in our very different care delivery model.  Music to my ears!  It was an hour that was very well spent and I loved every minute of it.