Dear friends! I sincerely congratulate you on your professional holiday – the Day of the Medical Worker. Congratulations to experienced highly qualified doctors, with whom I have the honor to work alongside. Congratulations to the students who have yet to go through this difficult but truly noble path.
A doctor is more than a profession. It is a calling and a choice to dedicate one’s life to serving others. Our profession means to save, to be close to a person when they come into this world and go to the better one. Only the most courageous can afford it. More precisely, Avicenna said: “The doctor must have the gaze of a falcon, the hands of a girl, the wisdom of a snake and the heart of a lion.”
At all times, medicine has influenced the development of the mankind. It is the doctor’s responsibility to keep up with the times and science. I do not know another profession that would require daily self-improvement. Healthcare professionals study many sciences throughout their lives, because we are doctors, scientists and psychologists at the patient’s bedside. This is the path of humanists – people who are loving, wise and patient.
I express my deep gratitude to all colleagues – doctors, teachers, scientists of Odessa National Medical University. Your contribution to the development of medical science in Ukraine is invaluable. I wish you good health, inspiration, confidence in your decisions and tomorrow. You are valued by patients and respected by colleagues. My dream is for the state to finally start treating people of our profession with due attention and care.
I want to appeal to all students of Odessa National Medical University. In the future, you will take our places in operating theaters, departments, laboratories. You need to reform the health care system, make scientific breakthroughs and discoveries. I wish you to be bold, ambitious, look wider and never back down. Remember that academics are born in the first year.
Sincerely yours, Chairman of the Academic Council of ONMedU, Academician Valerii Zaporozhan