And reclaiming life….
Talking of life, I think we should view hospitals as places for reclaiming life and every veritable sign of it. There is a lot of negativity associated with those places, and not unduly so. Death lurks at every corner and there is more pain, anxiety and uncertainty put together there than in a match where our boys in blue put up a show for the benefit of suckers watching them make an attempt at the game. (Tsk tsk)
It’s a place you walk in sick into. And at most times walk out better, if not well. It is a place where every second is spent reclaiming life, every action is directed towards that sole purpose, where you turn the odds in your favour, where you push away the uncertainty, the grey areas to move towards the white, towards clarity. Where you fight like you’ve never fought before for every rightful breath you can take. You fight to win.
I’ve spent half of the past six months of my life in and out of these places. I’ve been through frustrating consulting experiences. Plans of action which defy all logic, mixing up symptoms, indecisiveness…arrgh! And all of this from those with enough degrees to fill a bill board. They may be finding it hard to confront the fact that they are dealing with live beings day in day out. If that is really the case, and I almost think it is, they’d better wake up to that reality (shudder!) and shock themselves into mending their ways. And while you are at it, keep those bloated egos in check, will you?
And one thing that they have to, have to do is to LISTEN to the patient. I don’t care if they calculate patient time in seconds; they’d better be all f***ing ears!! Not all patients are blind followers of their train of thoughts and patient do come with an iota to innate logic. And they know a thing or two about what’s happening to them because it’s their b****y body that is going through all that grind. So believe and comply…..!
To be just, not all may be of the variety we were unfortunate enough to encounter. Why, we had one gem of a human being in our midst till he was taken away untimely, tragically falling prey to surgery induced infection.
While I continue to be so bitter about these individuals, I am all praise for the support staff. In these surroundings a smile goes a long way. Nothing like a little humour to start the patients day. Even though I have yet to come across nursing practitioners like the one from the Polo ad, I’ve seen the best of their ranks practice their profession with dedication. it is not easy to keep a cheerful face in a sombre place like that. I salute them.
