Ok,so we all get bads days/ weeks/ even months, but we still do the most
amazing job.How many other professions can actually make such positive
impacts on others lives. Yes we can't always provide the level of care to a
patient that we would like to in terms of access to scans, beds, surgeons
(god help them), and medications, but we can still CARE for them.
Frequently we see people who are in the ED because of their own actions,
but frankly there but the grace of a higher spectral being of your choice
go I. I do find it hard to deal with endless recurrent attenders with
little wrong with them, or clearing up an ED full of patients who are not
by any stretch of imagination an emergency BUT next time you get a patient
say thanks (yes I know all chocolates go to ITU or the ward coz the patient
thinks they saved them or sorted them)remember how it makes you feel.
Medicine remains a caring profession regardless of how cynical you are and
I am certainly a cynic, and regardless of where and in what conditions you
practice. It remains a privilge to care for people, to hear their inner
most thoughts and fears that they may not express to their nearest and
dearest, to try to cure or help them and if all fails to help them or their
family through their death. I know without a doubt that there are people
walking about the place now who would not be if it were not for ED docs...
Enough already I hear you cry.......... fair enough
Yours, hoping to learn how to spell properly soon,
Peter Cutting SpR EM
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