This person described himself as a dreamer.
As he spoke, he painted a particularly clear and vivid vision of the future he saw possible for the VA.
He worked in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and his passion for the work was evident and inspiring.
“It’s too easy to fall back on 1960. Martin Luther King and the pioneers did their jobs. They inspired and influenced us,” he said. “But we can’t keep going back to 1960. I think we’re at a moment of inflection. 2020 had to be a painful year to awaken a slumber. Now it’s time to re-imagine what our role is in this new period of inflection, in this new civil rights era. And kindness is what will take us to 2021 and beyond.”
Listener Poet Jenny Hegland
Veterans' Affairs Center for Development & Civic Engagement
October 2020
The VA of the Future I See
The VA of the future I see
is the VA I want it to be
I see a VA where 100% of our people
are physically and psychologically safe
I see a VA that’s diverse and fairly represents
those we serve in our communities
I see a VA where not only doctors, but all of us,
find our purpose in helping to heal our Veterans
I see a VA where we’re asking: what about cultural health?
(as much as we’re taking physical temperatures)
I see a VA where millennials and Gen Zers choose us
because we include them; we understand them
I see a VA where employees choose us
because there’s no other rational choice
I see a VA where employees are free
to innovate; not trapped by dogma
I see a VA with less structure, hierarchy, rules;
more openness, inclusion, principles, acceptance
I see a scientific VA; an intelligent VA;
a microcosm of our nation, holding hands
I see a VA that’s evolving, transforming, progressing
into alignment, civility, consciousness
I see us awakening, re-imagining, re-emerging from a slumber
into our role in a new civil rights era
Always, walking in kindness--
we’ve got this.
Every day, I try to see through the patient lens, and I ask: what can we do to change this broken system?
She was very proud of her daughter and has hopes for “a bright future that’s as pain free as possible”
“I’m trying to focus on doing little things to make people feel better during everything that’s going on in the world,” she told me.
“It’s hard to see others struggle,” she said. “How can I help with their struggle without struggling myself?”
"I'd tell her it's OK to be loud...it's OK to challenge and to bring all of you into these spaces where no one looks like you..."
“I'm continuously questioning: did I do it right?" she said. "I’ve always done a good amount of second-guessing, but I’m re-learning how to show up differently.”
“It’s weird,” she said. “This is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life, but it doesn’t feel like it.”
"It changed me; It changed the way I look at life," said this woman about her profound experience during her pregnancy.
“It’s been more challenging than normal lately,” she said. “I’m only one person. It's a struggle for me to say no, but I can’t do everything that’s being asked of me right now.”
"I've been processing how to make the most of the small amount of life we have to live," said this physician.
"I've been processing how to make the most of the small amount of life we have to live," said this physician.
“I like feeling small,” he told me. “Nature has always made me feel small.” He described the sense of wonder that feeling gave him.
“I feel like I have decision fatigue,” she told me. It was normal for her to make many choices at work, but COVID had dramatically increased the number of medical decisions she had to make at home.
“I know ‘vibe’ is kind of a nonspecific term, but I think about people’s vibes all the time,” he said.“ Sometimes you come into a room and it’s just off.
This physician discussed being the only one in his practice network with expertise in patients with a specific type of chronic pain.
“Our constituents are uniquely affected by the pandemic,” they said. This poemee was an educational psychologist who spoke about how much they missed working in person with med students, healthcare staff, and medical educators.
"I grew from the experience – though I think it aged me 10 years!" This is how a resident described a turning point with a specific patient when he recognized how burned out he was.
Although he had been through many stressful experiences in his life and recently, he always held onto his positive outlook. He took particular care to use words intentionally, paying attention to their connotations, so that his positivity extended to those that he interacted with as well.
“There’s a constant feeling inside that I should be doing more,” she said. “But I also want to be kind to myself and recognize all that I’ve given.”
These members of the Wellness team in the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado each spoke about the importance of community and connection.
She said she wanted a poem about the importance of CPR. As both a nurse and a CPR instructor, she spoke about how the rhythms of certain familiar songs helped her students internalize the rate of compression required.
He brought the tools of mindfulness and self-care to medical students, many of whom had been studying all this past year, 10 hours a day, day after day, in isolation.
The pandemic had forced this woman to slow her life down drastically. Before, she’d travelled around every month for work, never stopping, working hard because she cared about her job. The slower pace created by social distancing had reminded her to cherish everything that life had to offer outside of work.
He had recently lost his father to COVID-19 and was reflecting on forgiveness. For the majority of his life with his father, they did not have a positive relationship. However, in the last three years of life, his father lost his memory and his personality changed into someone who was loving and kind.