Don’t let the name tag, hair net, baggy scrubs and lab coat fool you into thinking that the staff who run Fraser Health hospitals and care facilities are robots with identical motivations and aspirations.
Sure, their jobs are highly regulated, specific and fast-paced as they rush about meeting the needs of patients.
But their stories are as diverse and inspiring as the patients they treat, feed and look after.
At least that’s the picture that emerges from the new ebook Humans of Fraser Health, inspired by the iconic photoblog Humans of New York.
Over two years, Fraser Health communications staff collected stories and recently published them online to showcase the individuals who work in medical facilities from Burnaby to Boston Bar.
According to Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of the organization, who wrote an introduction to the ebook, the initiative is one way to acknowledge a few of the 35,000 “unique people” who work for Fraser Health in clinical settings, information technology, finance, administration, food and volunteer services.
And for anyone who has been to a Fraser Health facility over the last year — that's one in 20 of us, according to national statistics provided by the health authority — the 70 stories are both eye-opening and inspiring.
The stories of three Tri-City caregivers, for example, make for an interesting read and show the passion these people bring to their job.
They are:
• Elaine Chu, a food services manager who plans the meals for Eagle Ridge Hospital (ERH) patients and Eagle Ridge Manor residents;
• Raymond Montecillo, who battled back from a stroke to volunteer for the Heart and Stroke Foundation at ERH;
• and Barbara Radons, a nurse practitioner who gives her cell phone number to families stressed about bringing their loved ones to long-term care.
Each write-up describes why these individuals got into health care, what they do and why it matters.
But while health care is the uniting factor in the stories, readers may find they relate to some of the experiences shared in these stories even if they or their loved ones haven’t been to hospital lately.
Humans of Fraser Health is a collection of human interest stories about people — and a good read to start of the new year.
You can find it here: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/62960069/humans-of-fraser-health
