Patients Aren’t Pariahs, They’re People: Join Us for the Canada Day Parade

​If you've been to the clinic these past few months, you've likely heard us playing the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman. In fact, if you've been to the legion on a Friday night, you may have even heard Rithesh's one man show performance of the entire album. We love the songs and play them at home, and at the clinic, daily. We dance, we sing, we love it to the core.

My initial interest in the movie was, believe it or not, intellectual. I wrote my dissertation for my PhD on deformity in Canadian fiction and one chapter discussed a book, The Biggest Modern Woman of the World, which features P.T. Barnum - the hero of The Greatest Showman. Historically, he was a financially motivated, racist, profiting prick - in the film, he's the champion of misfits. Like the "serious" critics, I should've hated the film for its caricatures and rushed storyline, but I didn't. Audiences haven't either; rather, they have seen the film two, three, four times, enthralled with its swooping optimism. Not only is the music addictive and the choreography enchanting, but the film expresses, as one character puts it, "a celebration of humanity."

I think one of the reasons we loved it so much was that it resonated with our year of ups and downs: 

• our choice to fight for our patients and the community by defying the critics and opening a new clinic;
  
• our push for the team approach to patient care that actually includes the patient, which counters the concept of physician as god-like and rather relies on a horizontal hierarchy where the patient must play a role in the management of their own health; 
  
• ​a reminder that those blinded by financial compensation suffer the loss of empathetic connection; 
  
• ​a reminder that good medicine cannot be sustained by a solo number but requires a chorus of voices to improve the health of our community by breaking down barriers to quality care.
  
  The establishment of interprofessional teams is a core value that we at Riverside Medical welcome and that our patients consistently embrace. We have big dreams for the future of health care in this town and in just one year, we've already inspired many changes because we work for you, not the other way around. You are key players in our success and in the push for better care in Drumheller.
  
  Therefore, we ask you to join us for the Canada Day Parade because without you, our patients and the community, there is no Riverside Medical. 
  
  Come join our chorus and walk with us, sing out loud, and dance to the beats of The Greatest Showman. Together let's celebrate, as voiced in the film, that "comfort is the enemy of progress" and we, all of us, are human and brave, bruised, and beautiful.