My name is Monica Meyers. I am a Radiology Technologist in the Medical Imaging Department at St Clare Hospital in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

I believe we all have the opportunity to lead.  Whether it’s through our words or our actions, we are each examples of how we expect our fellow employees to treat our patients and each other. In the last few years I’ve been given a number of opportunities to lead.  I chaired our Campus Shared Leadership committee and was also one of our AEPC Co-Champions.

I feel that some of us are born leaders and others just need a little push to reach our full potential. My push came from my sister-in-law. Her name was Dawn. She was 41 when she died of breast cancer on Aug 1st 2001.  What does her death have to do with me being a leader?  Well when I’m having a bad day and catch myself complaining or if I’m feeling tired, insignificant or powerless, I think of her and realize… I still have a voice.  . .  I still have the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life.  Thinking of her has given me the courage to use my voice… (pause)

Today I have brought with me an angel, a small inexpensive angel pin given to me by a patient. Did I save her life?  No.  It was nothing so dramatic.  I made a phone call for her . . . that was all.

It was a fall day in 2002, long before we had heard of Sister’s dream of AEPC. The patient – I’ll call her Mary -- came in for a routine chest x-ray. Her symptoms included a persistent cough and shortness of breath.

Have you ever noticed how we in healthcare use the word routine, as in routine appendectomy?   For us, it’s a procedure we’ve done thousands of times…..  but for patients it’s very personal, anxiety provoking, usually unpleasant and quite possibly invasive.

As I was doing Mary’s x-ray, she mentioned that she had missed an appointment for another test. She wondered if she should change her follow-up appointment with her primary doctor since she didn’t have her results. I called her doctor to reschedule the appointment and then I rescheduled her test as well. It only took a few moments.

While I was making the phone call, the Radiologist read Mary’s films. . . He found a large mass in her chest.

I saw Mary a week later when she came in for the first of what would become weekly visits to her Oncologists. She noticed I was pregnant, and every Monday we would chat and she would ask me how I was feeling. One Monday she gave me the angel pin.  She said, “I know it’s not much.”

I had planned to work until my due date, but my daughter had other plans.   I had a C-section three weeks early and spent the next eight weeks on maternity leave caring for my daughter.

It was a Monday when I went back to work - chemo day for Mary. I asked one of our receptionists if she’d been in yet. (pause) “I’m sorry,” she said. “Mary’s gone. She died while you were on leave.” (pause)

The day I met Mary, I knew we wouldn’t be able to cure her.  But I also knew that just being there for her was the best medicine I could provide.   I’m certain it’s the little things we do each day -- that’s what makes us leaders. And that’s why I have Mary’s angel pin with me today.   Although to her it was a small thing, to me it meant so much more.   Her angel reminds me everyday that we each have the opportunity to make a difference in some one’s life as we communicate during those moments of truth.  That’s what allows us to reveal the healing presence of God. -- pause

Ultimately, healthcare is about people.  When AEPC was introduced I felt compelled to present it. Not just in my department, but to the whole hospital. I am honored to work in an organization which strives to be exceptional.