“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.”Voltaire
Just as there many facets to the lives we live so are there many facets to human emotions. Hospitals are multifaceted; in one room a family is celebrating a new baby who has been born, news of a full recovery of a family member while in the adjacent room, a family is grieving for they have lost a baby/pregnancy/parent/partner. You get the gist, right? The common denominator is a healthcare team trying to manoeuvre all this simultaneously while not wishing to display the roller coaster of emotions they might be going through. This leads to mental, emotional and physical fatigue. To cope most health workers find some really dark humour in unpleasant situations. What some organizations and people outside our field forget is that we are humans with real emotions. We get angry, we get sick, we get frustrated, we get sad and we get overwhelmed among other emotions and feelings. We are human beings with emotions and blood running through our veins.
A couple of years ago I received a 4-year-old girl as an emergency while working in the Emergency department. Her eyes were jaundiced, her abdomen very distended, her skin very dry and itchy and when she cried there were no tears. For us that meant she was very dehydrated and whatever health issue she had grossly affected her liver. The team was all hands on deck and we did all we could but unfortunately, she never made it. The child's mother was informed and when I took her to view the body, I got overwhelmed. My throat felt tight, my eyes became glassy and I felt faint so I got a colleague to stay with her and quickly excused myself. I needed to step away immediately. I went to the farthest room I could find and tried closing the door not sure if I fully did and just cried my heart out. You know the ugly cry we all experience every so often. My heart felt broken I just couldn't make sense of it all. It was a hectic shift so as we cared for the emergency other outpatient patients continued to stream in. I must have stayed away for quite some time trying to compose myself when I had someone walk in. I was still whimpering behind the curtains and so I was quickly approached. It was a friend and he just stood there reassuringly periodically asking how he could help. I did regain composure and I walked out ready to face the next patient. I went back to the nurses' counter and the first thing that happened was a middle-aged man approaching me asking "Are there no doctors and nurses to attend to me just because of a so-called emergency." I was so irked but as expected I didn't reply as I wished. My generic response was" Apologies for the delay you will be attended to soon." As he existed we had a quick chat and educated him on what the ED is all about and what it means when a special code is called out.
So how can we do better for the sake of humanity
1. Build awareness among those around you
Have TV monitors/pamphlets displaying basic information that's relevant to the patient groups at hand.
2. Manage expectations
Language is a tool we often dismiss yet it can break or build relationships. Talk to the patients don't dismiss them, keep updating them. Institutions should have a program that serially educates personnel on better communication among themselves and with patients.
3. Keep evaluating institutional values and policies
There is a lot of value in having staff who are well cared for and prioritized. Physical, mental and financial support goes a long way to making staff feel valued and that's the perfect recipe for the provision of quality care.
4. Stop being self-centred
It's not always about you . There is more to life than you as one person
In conclusion, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” Martin Luther King Jr.
