Melissa listening to her welcome message at Whitby Hospital
Staff Story
A Welcoming Voice
“Hearing my own voice each morning makes me proud that I was chosen to represent my employer and my hometown of Whitby.”
If you’ve visited our Whitby Hospital recently, you may have heard a voice greeting you as you walk through the door. That’s Melissa!
She’s been volunteering and working at Lakeridge Health since 2001.
“I started out as a volunteer on Day Surgery and coffee kiosk at the Oshawa Hospital,” said Melissa. “I worked as a Rehabilitation Clerk within the Ambulatory Rehabilitation Centre (ARC) program at the Whitby Hospital, and then in July 2016 I moved to the Bowmanville Hospital shortly after doing my placement in the ARC in Oshawa.”
“I took a Unit Clerk position in the Medical Surgery Department at Port Perry Hospital in 2017,” she continued. “Finally, I’ve been working as a Nephrology Clerk at Whitby Hospital since 2018.”
Melissa considers herself lucky to find her current position so close to home and within the Nephrology program.
“My husband's family has a history of kidney disease,” she explained.
“I always knew that I wanted to work somewhere that I could help people. My favourite thing about my job is talking with our patients, making them feel at ease, and supporting them any way that I can.”
Melissa surely has a long history at Lakeridge Health, which made the opportunity to be the voice of a welcoming message to our patients and visitors that much more appealing.
In October 2022, Lakeridge Health’s multidisciplinary Passive Screening Committee sent out an email to all staff looking for one person from each Hospital that wanted to be the voice of Lakeridge Health. Melissa decided to submit a voice recording for the Whitby site.
“I heard back from them in March,” she said. “They asked if I was still interested in re-recording my voice for our entrance greeting.”
“Hearing my own voice each morning makes me proud that I was chosen to represent my employer and my hometown of Whitby,” Melissa explained. “I hope my voice is comforting and informative to all our patients regarding our masking and sanitizing measures when arriving at our Hospital.”
Melissa also admitted that celebrity status hasn’t been bestowed on her just yet.
“I don’t think anyone has recognized my voice yet. I’ve managed to avoid the paparazzi for now.”