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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

One good thing and one bad thing about my job

I will say one good thing and one bad thing about my job. 

1.  The good:  My favorite part of my job is having intelligent discussions with my patients.  I love my patients.  I love my patients, and I'm good at what I do.  I love that I can get along with the same people I'm told no one else can get along with .  I love when I can make a grumpy lady smile.  I love it when I had a lady who was severely short of breath say, "YOU GUYS JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW BAD I FEEL." And the nurse said, "Oh, you are so wrong!  Rick's been in your shoes before." That patient and I became good friends.  I love when I walk out of a room and I stand outside the door, and one little old lady says to the other, "That's a really neat guy.  I think you'll like him taking care of you." 

2.  The bad:  And this is gonno sound bad on the surface.  Sometimes I wonder what's the point of saving lives anyway.  If there's one thing I've learned in the medical field is that it is better to die with grace and dignity than for me to do to you some of the things I do to save you.  Medicine is great when you need us, but there's a lot of people who try to live forever, and they think we have the magic pill that's going to make that happen.  But we don't. Then instead of dying at home with dignity and grace in their own bed, they die in a hospital with no hair and nausea due to chemo, a tube in every orifice, and they continue to live another two years this way... it just drags on and on and all I can think is "you did this to yourself."  You talked to your doctor, and you decided you wanted everything.  You watch too much TV, where CPR works 60% of the time, and so you think that's how it is in real life.  But, in reality, we bring back only 7% of you, and only 2% of that 7% actually gets to go home. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Could not have said it better myself. Thank you for telling like it is.