Life as the 2nd VP in a Ginormous Healthcare Union

This is more or less a transcript from the video… except I cleaned up my grammar. 😂

Hi everyone. So it’s New Year’s Eve 2022. And this is my present to you: a video made by me, Charlotte Millington, your 2nd Vice-President. (Because I can’t mail everyone a card.)

But before we get started, let’s have a look back at 2020 because it’s kind of important. I think we’re all still waiting for March 2020 to end.

You remember how we used to be healthcare heroes? People used to go outside with their pots and pans. I don’t remember what time they went outside… but it was in the evening. They would go outside and we felt just so much love. We were dealing with the pandemic. We rushed into the fire when the world called for it.

We were heroes and we felt pretty good about that. The public felt good about it, too. Then along came 2021 and along came some good news. That good news was that we were finally going to get vaccinated. That was really cool because although we really liked being healthcare heroes, we were running into the fire without any protection.

The vaccine meant we could finally get protection, but a little bit of a surprise came with that. Not everybody wanted the vaccine. That took a lot of us by surprise because all of a sudden we began to feel a divide in healthcare. We had never felt that before. We had always felt like a big family.

But you are still healthcare heroes and you’re still doing the job. You guys are all still showing up. Remember we repatriated the housekeepers? You guys do tons of work with people and with patients and with residents. It makes a difference in the world.

So here is my recommendation… my request… my gift? I am giving you permission to take a break when you can. We still have a long way to go. We’re not out of this pandemic yet. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t have a crystal ball. What I do know is that we have to start putting our mental health first. That is going to be the priority of everybody in healthcare this year.

So whatever you’ve got going on: take a little time to enjoy the sun. Enjoy the ability to be with yourself. Take care of yourself. I am going to be with you, too, but I’ll probably bring my laptop. I work in IT and I feel a bit lost without it.

Let’s celebrate that we made it to 2022 and that we are still healthcare heroes.

You guys have done an amazing job. I really have felt all along in this pandemic that we are the backbone of healthcare.

And by the way, it was my friend, Natalie, who said, “Hey, you used to do those really cool videos! Whatever happened to those?” So if you enjoyed this video, you can thank Natalie for the inspiration!

With lots of love, Charlotte, your 2nd Vice President.