It’s hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is next week, and the holiday season will officially be upon us. I love this time of year for many reasons: it involves time with my family, visits with friends, enjoying good meals together and reflecting on the many blessings in my life.
One of those blessings is of course my profession. While being a physician certainly has its ups and downs, I love being entrusted with the care of my patients, learning about them and figuring out together how we can make their life healthier and more fulfilling.
Just yesterday I had the opportunity to serve patients in a different and unique way—by providing free skin cancer screenings as part of The Skin Cancer Foundations’ Destination Healthy Skin RV Tour Across America. This campaign stops in various cities across the U.S. to educate people about skin protection and skin cancer prevention, and I was delighted to be asked to serve as one of the two local physicians providing these skin checks during their stop in Paducah.
I met so many wonderful people during this event, and while I would have loved to have spent even more time with them, one thing that I found in common with most of the patients was that getting a skin check was just one of several health related “items” on their to-do list. Many struggled with tobacco use, several were diabetic, and sadly, many lacked a primary care physician.
This is an unfortunate reality in our Kentucky home. We have a lot of work to do to reverse course on the many ailments keeping our state at the bottom of health rankings. But that’s also why I’m so excited about the KMA and KFMC’s upcoming public health campaign, Small STEPS, Big Impact. Throughout this two-year effort, we will tackle many of the challenges facing our patients by encouraging them to take small steps to improve their health that can add up to a great improvement over time. We don’t want our patients to feel overwhelmed and intimidated by making changes to their lifestyles, and we want to be there to guide and support them as well.
A few weeks ago we hosted more than a dozen KMA member physicians who have volunteered to serve as Physician Ambassadors for the Small STEPS, Big Impact campaign. At the beginning of the session, we asked each physician to share their “why” for joining this initiative. Their responses were inspiring: many had been through their own health journey and wanted to motivate others who may be going through the same thing, others felt they had more to give to their patients than the time in the exam room allowed, and several just felt that this campaign spoke to the difficulties facing the health of Kentuckians and wanted to be part of making a difference.
So while I recognize that the challenges ahead of us are great, I am optimistic about the future of our health because I know there are countless more physicians working towards the same goal. KMA members know that our collective voices are greater than our voices as individuals, and I can’t help but feel blessed by the opportunity to walk alongside them on this journey to help our patients (and ourselves!) live longer, healthier lives.
During this season of Thanksgiving, I am thankful to be able to do what I do every day—whether that be seeing patients in my practice or conducting skin checks in an RV in the parking lot of a library. And I’m thankful for your membership in the KMA, which makes all of these things better for both our profession and our patients.
Blessings to you and yours this holiday season!
