Today is August 19, the sixth Chinese Doctors’ Day. On this special day, you bid farewell to campus life, join PUMCH and officially start working as a healthcare professional. First of all, on behalf of the hospital leadership and all the other PUMCHers, I would like to extend a warm welcome and heartfelt congratulations to all of you! As part of the celebration of the Chinese Doctors’ Day, I want to extend my best wishes and sincere greetings to every hardworking PUMCHer and your families!

The 382 new colleagues of this year will work in PUMCH in different capacities, including physician, nurse, clinical postdoctoral fellow, research postdoctoral fellow, medical technician, pharmacist, researcher and administrative staff. However, regardless of your position, from today onwards, you all share a common name, which is “PUMCHer”. You are expected to conduct yourself in a way fit for a PUMCHer.

As a PUMCHer, we should constantly reflect upon ourselves by asking the question: what is a PUMCHer supposed to be in the new era? To answer this question, I would like to take this opportunity to share a few thoughts with all of you.

Hone Your Skills with Hard Work and Grit to Excel

There is a saying that birds standing on trees never worry about the branches breaking because they rely on their wings, not the branches. For PUMCHers, to hone our skills so that we excel and “can treat diseases that others can’t” is equivalent to having wings that let us soar in the sky of medicine.

As the saying goes, “the well-digger starts with a pit and reaches a depth of ten thousand feet.”  At PUMCH, the renowned masters and mentors are all strong testament to that, setting examples for the young. Professor Zhang Zhinan, a famous expert in hematology, said: “Rich clinical experience is accumulated bit by bit, and excellent medical skills are honed step by step. Without dedication and diligence, there is no way you can master real skills.” The perfect case in point is Professor Zhang Xiaoqian, the well-respected former director of the Department of Internal Medicine. Every time he ran into a complicated and intractable case, he would write down the patient’s name and key points of conditions in his notebook. Over the years, his notebooks had become a “treasure trove of intractable diseases” and he knew the medical history of every patient by heart. Professor Zhang Naizheng, the former director of the Department of Rheumatology and the pioneer of the rheumatology discipline in China, still humbly sought advice from young doctors in his eighties. It is this adherence to “basic theories, knowledge and skills, and serious attitude, strict requirements, and meticulous methods”, the precaution like treading on thin ice at all times, and the humble attitude of always maintaining an “empty cup mentality” that have together contributed to the stellar reputation and great standing of PUMCH over the century.

PUMCHers in the new era must keep abreast of the times and shoulder their mission as medical professionals with greater grit. To that end, you must seize every second and hone your skills ceaselessly as a lifelong learner to excel. That is how you can become trustworthy and dependable doctors to patients, just like your predecessors were.

Be Aspiring and Innovative to Make Your Mark and Contribute

Scientific and technological innovation has become a significant strategic choice that has a bearing on a country’s fate. Viewed by patients as the last resort for their health and life, PUMCH should set sights on the forefront of medical and technological innovation. We should seek institutional innovation, technological, model and management innovation so that PUMCH can become a strong force that leads China’s medical development as early as possible.

In recent years, with the concerted efforts of all PUMCHers, the National Infrastructures for Translational Medicine and the State Key Laboratory, among other platforms, have been put into use. PUMCH has become a pilot hospital for high-quality development and receives National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding for conducting high-level translational medicine research, particularly on acute and critical conditions and complex and rare diseases. The construction of the Macao campus and Xiong’an campus is accelerating, giving a glimpse of the “1+N+X” layout, an all-encompassing network featuring one hospital with multiple campuses, that is initially taking shape.

PUMCH, a platform encouraging innovative development, is the stage for all of you to shine. You are fortunate to have joined PUMCH and become the new force driving the vigorous development of healthcare in China. We hope that you will remain hungry for new knowledge and aspiring to pursue excellence, laying a solid foundation for you to become “pathfinders”, venture into “uncharted territories”, and ascend the “highest peak”. The hospital will spare no effort to create better conditions and a more encouraging environment to support you along the way.

Build Your Character and Keep Alive the Compassion for Patients

Remember where you come from, so that you never lose sight of where you go. Since its inception, PUMCH has shouldered the mission of the times and never ceased to tame intractable diseases, always keeping in mind people’s health. Generation after generation of PUMCHers have held to the fine tradition of loving the country and remained committed to their ideal of better serving people since the very beginning.

A man without virtue will not become a worthy person and a country without virtue cannot prosper. PUMCH has been well trusted by patients and their families for more than a hundred years because of not only its superb medical skills, but also its medical ethics and compassion towards patients. When our senior professors see patients, they stand up, greet them with a smile, sit down only after the patient is seated and address them by their name cordially. Operating tables are often cold, but nurses warm them up with hot air blowers in the morning. At PUMCH, we all seek to make patients’ experience more comfortable and reassuring with sincere smiles, kind greetings, patient guidance, and considerate procedures, dispelling despair for more families. When you give heart-warming care to patients with love and kindness, your original commitment becomes real and visible and you further burnish the golden brand of PUMCH.

The well-being and health of our people rest on the youth. We hope that under the influence of the spirit and culture of PUMCH, you will build your character, be able to distinguish right from wrong, and strengthen your composure and self-discipline. You are also expected to see the general trend and act accordingly, tie your personal ideals to the future of the country, the fate of the nation, and the happiness of the people. Only then will you live a worthier, more meaningful, valuable and exciting life.

Dear colleagues, this year’s Chinese Doctors’ Day is themed “Shouldering the Health Mission and Making New Contribution”. This is what people earnestly expect from all medical professionals and it is all the more true for PUMCHers, who should fulfill their mission with greater initiative and hard work and conduct themselves in a way fit for PUMCHers. I have not the slightest doubt that you will become medical experts, educators, scientists, senior managers, or other types of hybrid and innovative talents. Finally, I wish you all success in this new chapter of life at PUMCH and in achieving your own “PUMCH Dream”!

Photographed by Sun Liang

Edited by Xiao Xiong and Chen Xiao

Translate by Liu Haiyan

Reviewed by Wang Yao