Note from the ACDIS Director: Tough times make tough people

by Brian Murphy

“Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” I love this simple quote and stand behind its meaning, but 2020 has put that saying to the test. So far, my year professionally has entailed:

• Closing our office and sending home our staff, and for a time absorbed pay reductions.
• The cancellation of our annual conference, annual outpatient symposium, and in-person CDI Boot Camps.
• Our CCDS/CCDS-O testing centers shutting down, though they have since reopened and resumed operation.
• Technology malfunctions derailing a really great podcast lined up last week on Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). (Yeah, minor but a punch nonetheless to cap off an otherwise bad day.)

From a personal perspective:

• My brother-in-law, a member of the armed services, was deployed overseas, separating him from my sister and their two young children.
• My oldest daughter, Hannah, starts her first year of college in a few weeks. This is hard enough in a non-COVID year and doubly so now, as they will start on campus while being tested for the virus.
• A friend of the family who survived a terrible accident years ago that left him disfigured, passed away due to a rare form of cancer in June. We attended the funeral, in tears, wearing masks, keeping our distance from the hugs that were desperately needed.

But I know that these times won’t last. History, and the resilience of human beings, has shown us that. We have overcome World Wars, the Spanish Influenza, September 11, and other natural, economic, and societal disasters. We have rallied as a nation and come out stronger on the other side.

I take solace that amid this chaos we’re doing great things. Professionally:

• The ACDIS Advisory Board has committed to a long-term project to help CDI departments make the case for themselves as essential to hospital quality and financial performance. We hope to eventually publish a toolkit of resources including papers, forms, and programs.
• We launched a Diversity and Inclusion Task Force to help make ACDIS a more welcoming place that promotes diverse hiring practices and combats racism.
• We’re doubling down on CDI Week, following up what will be the usual networking and fun with three days of complimentary education and CCDS CEUs with Virtual Education Curtain Call: Behind the Scenes of Star-Studded CDI Programs. It’s free to hard-working CDI professionals in the provider setting (for a hospital or hospital organization). Sign up today.

And personally:

• I have published a (non-CDI) book, Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery. I’ll add the standard disclaimer: Do not read unless you a hard-core nerd that enjoys reading about fantasy (it’s non-fiction). But it was a passion project that I’m proud to have completed.
• Did I mention my daughter is starting college? I couldn’t be prouder of this kid, who has also been working part time in food services at an assisted living facility, helping to serve a high-risk population.
• I’ve been able to spend more time with my wife and two daughters in the last six months than I have in the past few years, and we’ve made some great memories and bonded even closer as a family.

And I know we’re going to get through this current crisis. As Sam Gamgee (played by Sean Astin) said in The Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers):

It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy.
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.

So, I’d like to end with a question: How are you keeping the lights on, personally or professionally?

Please let me know. If you have something you’d like to contribute, a story or an anecdote or a piece of data, this is the stuff that keeps me going, that keeps us all going. Hit me up with an email at bmurphy@acdis.org.

Hang in there, and stay strong,

Editor’s note: Murphy is the director for ACDIS. Contact him at bmurphy@acdis.org.