LOUISIANA STATE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS
Earlier this year, LesterW. Johnson,MDageneral surgeon from Monroe, who also serves as professor of surgery at LSU Health-Shreveport and chief of surgery at LSU Health’s partner hospital University Health-Conway in Monroe, was elected as President of the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners. Dr. Johnson made the following comments upon assuming the president’s role on September 30, 2021.
If I may take just a moment of personal privilege to thank Governor Edwards and the State Medical Society for allowing me to serve on the board and of course to thank the board members for my opportunity to serve as your president. I must say that I take up this office and its tasks with buoyancy and hope for the future and with the highest possible admiration for my two predecessors who have held this office in the recent past. We surely owe a special debt of gratitude to both Dr. Valentine and Dr. Clark. I would hope that our deliberations would continue to be reflective rather than reactive and emulate those things worthy of emulation while avoiding those things worthy of avoidance. We must be respectful of this arena of ideas and hope for consensus but, as has always been our custom, avoid coercion. We should never confuse vigor of assertion with strength of argument. We can, I believe, all agree upon the value and indeed necessity of a solid organizational structure (and of course wemust thankDr. Clark for his efforts in this regard) but also, we should not diminish the importance of the individual initiative, inventiveness, and responsibility inherent upon each member of this board. Each of you were placed here for a reason, none of you should be the least bit shy, possessive, or proprietary about the products of your perception and intelligence. I look to each of you for ideas and where you deem warranted for your support. And if I may - - - in all the history of healthcare and its crises in Louisianawe here today surely inhabit a solemn hour. I have come to wonder over the last few days and nights how to best express the gratitude owed to all those who over the last eighteen months have
given so unselfishly of themselves in the battles with the covid virus and its variants. Surely no braver action can be asked than to deny that such circumstances are the natural lot of men. I happened upon a quote from the great novel “The Plague” by the French author and Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus which may do in attempt. I believe this passage is a primary reason for Camus’ Nobel Prize and expresses the timeless philosophy of those in healthcare who exhibit the broadest vision and those who contain the bravest hearts. Those who have always provided the North Star by which to steer us safely home to anchor. And I quote Albert Camus “Rieux knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of final victory. It could be only the record of what had had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again in the never-ending fight against disease and its relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints, but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.” It has been said since the times of theGreat AntonineRoman Emperors that loyalty is the greatest virtue. Loyalty to the ideas and ideals of the medical profession is a sentiment not a law, it rests upon love not restraint. On behalf of the board of medical examiners of the state of Louisiana I would like to profusely thank our thirty thousand plus licensees, members of the nursing profession, members of the allied health professions, all first responders, and all other front- line colleagues for their loyalty to their profession and patients, and for their refusal to bow before pestilence in all its sordid forms. And now as has become our custom, a moment of silence for those lost. ■
T hank You Colleagues
10 J LA MED SOC | VOL 173 | WINTER 2021
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