EDINBURG — DHR Health held a ceremony and luncheon Friday here at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance, honoring those in the medical profession who’ve remained devoted to serving the hospital system and local community.
The ceremony came at a time when shortages in medical professions are being observed nationally, especially in nursing.
Health officials at DHR have addressed this by providing educational opportunities for future healthcare workers. In fact, Dr. Sohail Rao, executive vice president of DHR Health, and Region One partnered with GEAR UP for a career pathway event on March 1 to help high school counselors effectively guide students into the healthcare field.
Throughout this career pathways event, Rao and his team informed the counselors of the growing issues in health professions, more specifically the healthcare worker shortage. After last week’s event, Rao hopes to have provided the counselors with sufficient information that will help reverse a growing issue.
On Friday, however, all attention was given to the individuals who’ve remained in the local healthcare industry.
“I’m excited that we are here today to celebrate these employees that have been with the organization for 10, 15, 20, or more years simply because they truly are the testament to what health care is, “ said Manny Chacon, DHR Health vice president of human resources, who went on to describe the commitment of healthcare workers Friday. “They come in every day, they give up themselves to take care of other people who are in need, through the pandemic they were steady, and after all these years they still find fulfillment, still find passion and still find the desire to want to care for others.”
During the ceremony, DHR Health recognized individuals from all healthcare positions. The staff was greeted with food and live music. As they ate, a slide show of those who were being honored played in the background. That presentation included pictures of those individuals along with a brief history of their work at DHR Health.
Alma Ortiz, who has been a nurse at DHR Health for almost 15 years, said via text message that the hospital system and its employees are more than just a workplace and her co-workers, but rather a tight-knit group of people who look out for one another.
“(The) women’s hospital has supported me through many ups and downs in my life. They are my family and my second home … I don’t feel like an employee here. I feel like family,” said Ortiz, who believes nursing is more than just a job. “Working in the nursery isn’t a job for me, it’s my career, it’s my passion. I look forward to coming in every day, knowing I give the best patient care to my babies.”
The medical field, like most careers, requires students to take a particular set of classes in order to obtain the knowledge needed to work in their respective fields. Marivic Cocjin-Fojas, who has been a nurse since 1980, said that while studying to be a nurse she was exposed to well-rounded courses that helped prepare her for the future.
“I got my basics done and my bachelor’s for nursing. It was basically dedicated skills in nursing, you were trained as a clinical instructor, staff nurse, head nurse, and practically all fields of nursing,” said Cocjin-Fojas.
Chacon said that although the national nursing shortage gap seems big, the need for nurses has always been around and stressed that DHR Health has and will continue to help bridge that gap.
“We work very closely with all the academic partnerships that we have so that we can ensure that we are meeting the needs of this community,” Chacon said. “For us, it is really important to cultivate those relationships early on because we need to make sure that we are building a pool of future nursing and healthcare providers for the hospital.”
