Iowa Specialty Hospital

Amy's Reflections

November 10, 2016

“My heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect our world and make it a better place.”– Sidney Sheldon

I am constantly reminded of the love and support that we have for each other in this healthcare family. With the recent attacks on law enforcement in Des Moines I have been amazed at the number of people that have asked about Rick or shared that our family is in their thoughts. This illustrates to me the clear similarities in the calling for healthcare and for law enforcement. It is the calling to serve others and to help them in their time of need. I am fortunate enough to belong to both families as are a lot of our employees. I know that Brooke Nerlien, Molly Ades, Kristin Dodge, Reina Robinson, April Ely, Carla Kem, Kayla Franzen, Dani Valentine and Jeannie McWhorter  to name a few share this dual blessing of belonging to both the healthcare and the law enforcement families as well.

As healthcare workers you are a special breed of people that serve in times of high stress and high emotion. When most people would run away, you step in and offer help and support and this amazes me daily.  

Rick has been in law enforcement for 20 years now, and I was there the day he graduated from the academy and dedicated his life to serving others. This was a commitment we both made, as there have been plenty of personal sacrifices over the years but always with the understanding that he was needed elsewhere. Over these years he has missed countless family events, kid’s activities, and gone without sleep more hours than I could count.  We have had numerous times in our marriage when duty called, and he went no questions asked. Sometimes he could share his burden and the stories, and sometimes the stories were too horrific to share. Through it all, the duty to serve others has remained strong and consistent regardless of what is going on around us. 

This is by far the greatest similarity that I see to those in healthcare. I am sure that if I changed the names in the above paragraph, I could have easily just described any one of you. I commend you for stepping up and following your calling. I know I am grateful that you did. Thank you for making a difference. 

“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.” ~ Lewis Carol

 

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