I will treat everyone in my care with compassion, because no one deserves what COVID does.
Jeffrey C. Munson, MD, MSCE, Medical Director of the MICUA friend of mine in our Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) today asked me for some good news about COVID-19. Anything. His question made me appreciate how much we all want and need something good to center on, and how little there is to share.
I am tired. I am frustrated. I am sad. And in the midst of this, it sometimes feels like all I ever see is people talking about what other people should do to make things better. I don't have good news, but I can try to change the last part. Rather than saying what I think everyone else should do, I want to say out loud what I am willing to do.
I will wear my mask. Sometimes to protect me, always to protect you. I will get my third shot. And my fourth, and my fifth if it comes to that. Because in my world of million-dollar technology, this shot is still the most effective way to keep people alive.
I will come to work every day and take care of anyone who is sick in my unit. I don't care if they are vaccinated, unvaccinated, rich, poor, Black, white, brown, gay, straight, Republican, Democrat or Independent. I will put on whatever mask, face shield, gown and gloves I need to come to their bedside and help. I will learn as much as I can, so that when you are sick, I can promise we are doing everything that can be done to save your life.
I will support my peers in the MICU in any way I can. Because, like me, they are tired, they are frustrated, and they are sad. And because they are not only the front line; they are the last line separating the sick from the dead.
I will treat everyone in my care with compassion, because no one deserves what COVID does. And for those who cannot survive, I will do everything I can to ensure that they do not suffer, and I will grieve their loss.
This is my part to play, and I accept it. I accept it because it is what I can do in a time when the need for doing is so great. And I accept it because I stood in front of my family, my peers, and my community and promised that I would care for the sick.
-Jeffrey C. Munson, MD, MSCE, Medical Director of the MICU
About Dartmouth-Hitchcock
DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK HEALTH (D-HH), New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves a population of 1.9 million across Northern New England. D-H provides access to more than 2,400 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. DHMC was named in 2019 as the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and recognized for high performance in 13 clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health also includes the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, one of only 51 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation; the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the state’s only children’s hospital; affiliated member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, and New London, NH, and Windsor, VT, and Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and 24 Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinics that provide ambulatory services across New Hampshire and Vermont. The D-H system trains nearly 400 residents and fellows annually, and performs world-class research, in partnership with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT.