You know you’re at Children’s Specialized when…

Have you ever caught yourself in the “outside world” doing things that you do while at work here at Children’s Specialized and wondered if people are looking at you funny?

I have!

Last week I was walking in from the Plum Street parking deck in the middle afternoon. Jagdar Tamesar (Environmental Services) was walking in with me and I bent down to pick up garbage from the floor in the parking deck.

Now, if you have been in the Plum Street deck in New Brunswick, you know that while the New Brunswick Parking Authority does great work, the parking deck has a pretty heavy flow of traffic in and out, so it is hard to keep it clean.

Stuff on the floor is a pet peeve of mine. I think of my work space the same way that I do of my home. I would never walk over a piece of garbage in my own home, so I wouldn’t leave it on the floor here at work either.

Want to hear something funny? One Sunday I came into the hospital and Marion Bethea (PAS, Mtn) was poking fun because she saw me on the security cameras picking up hairpins that were on the floor!

Another thing I do all the time is talk to random children – not just our kids, but any kid. I ask them about their day and talk to them about the clothes they are wearing. Their parents are either thrilled that someone is taking notice of their children or they think I am a total crackpot.

Let’s hear it! What little quirks do you carry with you from our work here?

Do I really write these things?

So, one of the questions that I get pretty frequently is "Who writes the Weekly Wrap Up, Access Amy, etc for you?"

One of our values is Teamwork, so believe me when I say that these are all team efforts!

The content for both the Wrap Up and Access Amy come from each and every one of you! Your achievements, your events, your questions and concerns. Sometimes you write to me about a big award a colleague recently received, or questions about a new program. But everything that is shared is about our Children’s Specialized Hospital family.

For the Wrap Up, some of the information is written by others and shared in the Wrap Up format. As for Access Amy, let me set the record straight – I write every single blog.  And because I’m a planner, they are written sometimes long before they appear on the blog – well, depending on the topic.

Like I said, it’s a team effort.

I’ll be the first to admit, grammar is not my strongest skill and my fingers often type faster than spell check can keep up with! So, I have a team to make sure I write well! Rose Allsop (Exec. Asst., New Brunswick) helps me to format the Weekly Wrap Up and send it out to everyone, after Megan Muller (Internal Comm Spec, New Brunswick) gives it a quick review for typos and errors.

For Access Amy, Megan and Rebecca Mazzarella (Comm Mgr, Mountainside) read over my posts and give me some feedback on how to make them better. They also help to publish them and get the word out about the new posts.

I am writing this post on Tuesday, August 18 from a fast-moving train in Japan on a once in a life time vacation. This picture is actually taken from the window so you could be here with me!

So you know who writes these posts and my team of helpers. The other question I frequently get is “Why?”

While the easy answer is “because I want to make sure that you have information about health care environment or things we are trying to tackle,” the other reason is that I want you to have a sense of who I am and what influences my leadership and my thinking. 

Thirteen years ago, during the interview process for this job, I was being interviewed by about 10 doctors during the physician portion when one of them said they often didn't understand the decisions that were made out of the "White House," or the upper management. I was then asked what I would do to better inform the staff about the why behind the decisions made, rather than just the decisions themselves.

Fast forward to today. My blog is a vehicle to do just that – to make sure that the all of our team members are informed in not just the final result, but the decision process and all it involves.

One of the reasons I invite you to ask questions on my blog posts, at the employee meetings or give me ideas to write about, is so I can use the forums to try and answer those "why" questions.

Even if you don't agree with decisions, I find having the background of what influenced the decisions helps to have a context for why those decisions were made. 

So, as long as you keep reading and sharing, I will keep writing. I hope you will continue to ask questions and share your ideas, even give me topics you’d like to see here on the blog or shared in the Wrap Up! They don't have to be weighty and serious (I mean, I’ve shared my shoe closet with you guys on the blog!).

So now that you know who writes the blog, I want to hear from you. What should I write about next?

The one thing I swore I’d never do

Mom and I vacationing in Boothbay Harbor in Maine.

It’s true. I don't know when or how it happened, but it has happened. The one thing I promised myself I wouldn’t do, and yet I’ve gone and done it. And there is no turning back now.

I have become my Mother.

Now being my Mother isn't a bad thing. I mean, she’s a pretty amazing lady if you ask me. However, it is a little frightening that every time I open my mouth, I hear her. I have several mannerisms that are just like hers. 

Like the way she waves me off when I try and pay for something. Or the way she makes broad generalizations, you know when someone cuts her off in traffic she swears they are on drugs because why else would someone act like that.

My mother is also the most kind and talented woman I know.

She is quite an artist. You can see her mastery of color in her garden and her home. No matter how hard I try, my garden never looks as beautiful as hers. Still, I do get great joy in sharing my gardening accomplishments with her. When the stargazer lily bloomed you would have think I gave birth for how excited I was!

I also enjoy when I can recreate the recipe that was a favorite that she made when I was a kid. One of the most cherished gifts is when she copied her recipes and gave them to me when I got married.

The marriage didn't make it, but believe me I took those recipes with me!

Have you become one of your parents? And if so, how do you know? Share an example below in the comments!

Moments to relive

Sometimes, when I’m having “one of those days,” I like to reflect on some moments in my life where I felt like I was on top of the world. Those moments that put a stamp on your heart, and your memory, and always bring you back to what you were feeling on that day.

Today I want to share a few moments that really took my breath away or caused me such joy that I wish I could do them again.  And of course because you know me, there is a combination of work things and personal things. 

One of the first things that comes to mind was after my father’s surgery to remove his cancer-infested kidney. The morning after the surgery, I brought my mother to his hospital room. He looked up and said, “The doctor told me if I start walking, I could get out of here faster. We are going walking!” So, if you can imagine, my 80-year-old father was doing laps around the other oncology patients and circling the nurses’ station.

I tried to explain to him no one liked a show off and he might trip if he is not careful! Did he care? No way! He wanted to go home as soon as he could!

When the doctor came back the next day, he told him he had done 100 laps and he thought he should get to go home. The doctor looked at me and I said, “Welcome to my world!” In the end, the doctor told him he needed to stay for at least one more day. The look on his face was devastating but the moment was hysterical. This is the essence of my Dad—give him a task and get the heck out of the way!

Children’s Specialized Hospital had been nominated by NJBIZ in 2007 for being an outstanding company. The award ceremony was the same night as one of our Board meetings and all of Senior Staff was there. We knew we had made the top 25, but we didn’t know where we fell in the ranking.

So, there we all were. We had been 10th the year before and we were thinking we might move up one or two spots. But that wasn’t the case.  The announcement of the rankings began; they called 10th place, 9th place, etc, and we still weren’t called.

As we reached the final honorees it was clear we would be named either first or second. When they announced that we were the Hospital of the Year I remember the elation. Not that it was going to change the course of anyone’s life, but we were all so excited and so proud to be together and working together. I can still feel the excitement in my belly. It was a great moment!

Lastly, I am taken back to Alabama. In graduate school I was hired by a big executive of a paper company to dog and house sit for them while he and his family traveled. They had a chocolate lab and I fell in love with her.

When they bred her, I asked to buy one of the chocolate females. She gave birth to 11 pups—5 chocolate, 6 yellow. Four of the chocolate puppies were males and only one was female, also the runt of the litter. I thought it was destiny! There were no ifs, ands, or buts—she was mine.

She lived for 15 years, getting me through a marriage and a divorce. She was my last dog (so far), because it was just too hard to say goodbye to her. I’ll never forget that first moment when I saw her, all by herself when the others were trying to nurse from their mom. We connected; she was mine.

I’m sure we all have a few moments that have left huge impressions on our lives. Please share one of your memorable moments in the comments below! 

“Office” sins to avoid at all cost

We are spending a lot of time focusing on our Service Excellence Standards – in the Daily Huddles and how we live them each and every day. So when I came across this article that lists the things you should never do in an office environment I got to thinking about what would be considered a “sin” here at Children’s Specialized Hospital.

Here is my list of “Office Sins”:

1. Never yell. I have never found a reason that someone needs to yell – unless of course they are trying to prevent someone from running into traffic! If the only way you can get your point across is to yell, then you probably shouldn’t say anything. Take a breath and come back when the yell is no longer in your throat.
2. Dress appropriately. If the outfit you have on is something you second guess to wear to work because it may not be appropriate, don’t wear it. The little birdy in your head telling you that it’s not that bad, probably is fibbing.
3. Cut the negativity. Avoid talking about others in a negative way. It just isn’t nice and never productive.
4. Resolve it. If your feelings are hurt by something that has happened at work, find a way to ask the person why they did what they did – not in a critical way. Seek to understand rather than accuse.
5. Think before you speak. Never let words come out of your mouth that you know you will regret later – we have all done it. Sometimes it may be hard to swallow, but rewording what you want to say will pay off in the long run.

You’ve read mine, now I want to know yours. What does your list of “sins” look like? What are some rules you live by?

Working at Children’s Specialized: Sad or inspirational?

“How do you work there? It must be so sad.”

Have you ever gotten that response (or some variation of it) when you tell people you work at Children’s Specialized Hospital? Whether people have come for a tour at one of our sites or have just learned what we do, the response is usually the same – a sense of remorse and sadness.

When I hear this, I immediately launch into my support of the children we serve. 

I tell them that these kids have no idea how sick they really are, and that their main focus is getting home and being with their family. These kids are courageous in ways I could never be and they are determined!

These kids want to be kids – they want to experience joy and laughter. They want to find ways to enjoy life, regardless of any limitations that may be present.

One of our colleagues encouraged me to use my speeches to focus on how we strive to develop our children to be as independent as possible, and how we teach their families to have the courage to advocate and create the most inclusive community possible.

Working at Children’s Specialized Hospital is so much more than providing health care to these children. It is about doing what you would do for a member of your family; giving them the support to achieve all that is possible and reaching their maximum potential.

So, if asked the question, “How do you work there,” how would you respond? What would you say

Regardless, it is still such a blessing to be involved with our children and watch them grow and progress to become amazing adults. It’s not sad to work here, it’s inspirational.

Summer vacation, had me a blast

My July 4^th weekend was perfect – sun, fireworks, and even the perfect amount of rain to cool down the heat of the day. 

I really do love summer.

My mom was a teacher, so she had summers off. So, we would spend a lot of time together during the summer months. There was always something to do, and she was a great partner in crime.

Growing up, we always had a big garden, and Mom spent a lot of time canning – you know, preserving foods by putting it in sealed cans. I am not sure that she loved to can, or if it was that we were on a fixed income and it was the only way we got through the winter months. Regardless, it was fun.

She would can everything from vegetables to sauces, but my favorite of all were the jellies and jams. Why? Well, there is something so fun about picking the fruit for the jams!

I remember when I was little we would go strawberry or raspberry picking. It always ended up with me bleeding because I refused to wear long pants and would get beat up by the briers. My mom would create competitive games for me to see who could fill up the containers faster, which often led to green berries being picked just to get the numbers. There was no quality control until later, and she never specified they couldn’t be green!

These times have always been times that I cherish.

We always took a two-week vacation the first two weeks in August, when my Dad finished teaching summer school. We would go camping in Maine and stop to see family along the way.

My favorite part of the trip was visiting with my father’s aunt in Massachusetts. We would eat seafood and visit cousins (and there were a lot of them!). As an only child myself, watching the brother/sister dynamics between my dad and his sister was always fascinating.

Camping in a tent, on the other hand, was a love-hate kind of thing. We loved it because it was the only way we could afford the vacation. However, there was always a twist.

You can’t predict or control the weather, so that always created a tremendous challenge. I remember being stuck in torrential rainstorms one year for almost all of the two weeks. My father told me if I cried to go home my mother would give in.

There was also the dreaded walk to go to the bathroom in the middle of the pitch black night to the one-stall bathroom. It always seemed like a million miles away. 

The priceless part, and the most meaningful part of the trip, was the opportunity to spend time in a beautiful part of the country with two people who I still adore to this day. We had fun, regardless of the weather or how long the walk to the bathroom was.

Playing Memory and Clue to pass the time. Finding shells and picking mussels for dinner. All of these warm memories make it difficult to resist jumping in when I see the kids playing Memory in the gym today.

So, what is your favorite memory of the summer vacations you took as a kid?