Live from Methodist Dallas Medical Center, It’s the Pink Glove Dance!

By Allison Vo, RN, BSN, OCN
Cancer Program Manager
Methodist Dallas Medical Center

Fred Astaire and the top hat. Chubby Checker and “The Twist.” Michael Jackson, the sequin glove, and the moonwalk. “Dancing with the Stars” and the mirror ball trophy. Over the years, dance has had its iconic associations. With the arrival of October, we take time to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a new dance association, the Pink Glove.

Several years ago, latex glove supplier Medline began producing pink gloves to call attention to the monthlong observance. In 2009, Medline rolled out a dance video as a way to increase awareness of breast cancer and its support of the effort to battle and defeat the disease. A 2010 sequel involved more than 4,000 people from across the nation, including hundreds of survivors and their families. Everyone involved knew they were onto something when the video received more than 13 million views on YouTube.

The Pink Glove Dance video continued to take on a life of its own as Medline launched the first competition in 2011, and 139 individuals and organizations submitted entries. Judging was through online voting, and a hospital from South Carolina was crowned the winner with more than 61,000 votes.

In 2011, Pink Glove Dance fever spread to Methodist Mansfield Medical Center. This year Methodist Dallas Medical Center also joined the competition. We produced a video that features eight breast cancer survivors and represents 17 departments, including volunteer services, environmental services, information services, labor and delivery, clinical outcomes management, human resources, and more. The video is set to Katie Perry’s A Part of Me that includes these lyrics: “This is the part of me that you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no.”

The underlying theme of the video is things that cancer can’t take from you. Participants in the video wear T-shirts imprinted with words like “beauty and friends,” “hope and love,” “family and peace,” “faith and joy,” “life and support,” “dreams and spirit,” “courage and strength,” and “survival and health.” The choreography is built around boxing as participants try to knock out cancer.

The Pink Glove Dance video has been a unifying experience as staff members from throughout the hospital have come together to rally around our breast cancer patients and their individual journeys to well-being. We want to help them find a support system that works best for them and, in doing so, we connect with each one in the way that provides the resources that are best suited to their specific situation. We think the video is also a great way to remind women about the importance of yearly mammography, reinforcing our commitment to early detection and screening.

At Methodist Dallas, we had a ball producing the video. In fact, we learned a few things that may be helpful to other hospitals as they create their videos:

• Keep it simple.
• Keep it fun.
• The more participants, the merrier.
• Trust your co-workers to come up with something creative. They won’t let you down.
• Always feature survivors, lots of survivors. They’re the real stars of the video.
• Share the completed video with all employees. At Methodist Dallas, we included our video in our September G.R.E.A.T. Award celebration, which helps us recognize exceptional staff and encourage Giving Recognition for Excellence, Achievement, and Teamwork. We will also show it at each of our Employee Forum sessions, in staff meetings, at physician section meetings, at community outreach events, and at survivor support groups, and we will put it on our recruitment and general websites.

To see the Methodist Dallas and Methodist Mansfield 2012 Pink Glove Dance videos, visit PinkGloveDance.com. We welcome and appreciate your vote! The Pink Glove Dance Competition 2012 will begin at noon CST on October 12 and will close at midnight on October 26. Winners will be announced on November 2, 2012.

If you’re ready to ready to kick up your heels with an organization that provides a fun, caring environment, then it’s time to choose Methodist Health System. Learn more by visiting Jobs.MethodistHealthSystem.org.

© Methodist Health System

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