What is self care? This is a term we often hear in the media today and it evokes visions of things we do for ourselves as something special - to reward ourselves for some stressful encounter or relieve the stress of current circumstances. Psychology Today says self care in essence is the mindful taking of time to pay attention to you, not in a narcissistic way, but in a way that ensures that you are being cared for by you.

At Dankmeyer we are very committed to taking care of our patients every day in a safe and secure environment. As we negotiate this pandemic, this has become more layered. This involves increased PPE and rigorous cleaning, social distancing, and Telehealth. Patients tell us that they appreciate everything we do as we care for them. Some patients have been asking us how we are doing, and so we thought we would share some of the things we do as a team behind the scenes to take care of each other.

Just like everyone else, we are trying to make it through every day with our families. Some have moved elderly parents home, others are coping with all the confusion and stresses of school for their children. Some are navigating not seeing their loved ones for long periods of time. Sometimes there is more than one member of the household working at home, so keeping out of each other’s hair can be a challenge! (Me. That is me!) As a team we see what our coworkers are dealing with, and so we try to support each other while we do the same for our patients, referral sources and all the communities we come into contact with.

Early on we designed and printed T-Shirts that we could wear as a team on Fridays to show the strength of our bond with each other and as proud Maryland citizens. Adrienne Castle (Patient Services Coordinator) coordinated getting cloth masks printed with names and logos for those that were in the back office. Art Ross, Fabrication Technician, designed and fabricated a tool to provide relief for wearing certain types of masks long term. In the early days of the pandemic, we had a team at our Linthicum office sewing cloth masks for staff and members of the community. We had two sewing stations in our front office going all day, every day.

Members of our leadership team were surprised before the holidays to find handmade posters on their office doors. These posters were created by the staff to provide support and encouragement. They were accompanied by a few sweet treats! I am sharing my poster with you here so you can see what fun they were! Tears were shed. I’m not saying by whom….

Members of the leadership team reciprocated by sending handwritten thank you notes to each member of the Dankmeyer team. These expressed gratitude for all the hard work and commitment every member of our team puts in every day.

Mark Hopkins, our CEO, is a marathon runner and has used the analogy of the marathon process to describe making our way through the pandemic. It is a marathon, not a sprint, and pacing is very important in getting to the next milestone. Many marathoners have the experience of “hitting the wall” at some point toward the end of the 26.2 mile course. This usually means running out of energy - both physically and emotionally - which makes it more difficult to continue the race. As as distance runner, I know that this point can come at varying times for any individual race and person. COVID is nothing if not a long distance/time experience. Along any race course, there are aid stations - this is where runners can get water and fuel. The longer the run, the more types of fuel may be available at a station - lots of sugar and carbs to provide calories to burn for the next push. We decided to create our own custom pandemic aid station bags for everyone to help with the stress of continuing the fight to the COVID finish line.

As healthcare providers, we are eligible for vaccinations in the early stages of roll out and we are getting vaccinated as soon as we can. Some staff members have been sharing their vaccination “shots”. We will continue to find fun and interesting ways to support each other, now and beyond the pandemic. Who knows what will come next!

- Rebecca (Becky) Snell, Director of IT & Marketing