By: Ashley Strehl - Managing Editor of Print and Digital Publications
What does Integrity mean to you? To some, it could mean honest, decency, or goodness. To Voyage Long Term Care integrity means, “We choose courage over comfort. We choose to do what is right over what is fast, fun or easy. We practice our values rather than simply professing them.”
Almost every business will have a mission statement, and/or what they call core values, but how many will take their core values and put them before every decision they make and everything that they do? In this five-part series, we are covering the core values of Voyage Long Term Care, and why we hold them so close to us in everything we do.
CEO and Founder of Voyage LTC, Brad Underwood, said that when he was creating the core values within his long-term care company, he sat down with his team and they assessed what was most important to them. “I think when we started we didn't want to be just another healthcare company, there was a plan and a design that we wanted to do something different,” Underwood said. “We asked ourselves, what drives our policies? What drives our procedures? Who are we? I believe that our core values are the measuring stick to our success.”
We Choose Courage Over Comfort
Underwood said that when he was thinking about their first core value, integrity, he was inspired by other businesses that had integrity in their core values. “A lot of times, in business, it can be very easy to choose comfort over courage,” Underwood said. “It takes courage to step out and do things differently. It takes courage to say, ‘this may not work, but we’re going to try it.’” Working in long-term care comes with challenges where an individual must be courageous to succeed.
“We ask our employees on a daily basis to be courageous,” Underwood said. "We ask them to step into the unknown, to jump in, and have courage. Integrity takes courage.”
We Choose to Do What is Right Over What is Fast, Fun or Easy
Doing the easy thing can often times be the natural thing that come to those in the workforce. However, working in healthcare is not always easy, and often times, the quality of care that we give to our residents within our long-term care communities depends on the dedication to doing what’s right, over what is fast, fun or easy. “It’s not fun to stay over the time that your shift ends,” Underwood said. “But you know it’s the right thing to do, because maybe the residents need additional attention and care, so with integrity, you do it.”
We Practice Our Values Rather Than Simply Professing Them
The importance of knowing that no person or organization is perfect is something that Underwood kept in mind when finishing our definition of Integrity. “I think what helps our core values become more relatable is saying that we practice rather than simply profess,” Underwood said. “For example, you practice a sport to get better. You practice an instrument to get better. That’s what we are doing here."
"We understand that we may fall short, but what’s important is that we keep practicing to get better, and we practice together.” - Brad Underwood
At Voyage LTC, every day, our employees set forth with intentions of integrity within their long-term care community. They choose courage over comfort. They do what is right over what is fast, fun or easy. Because of this, we know our residents are in the hands of honest people with pure intentions.