A Lesson in Life

"What are they doing here?" said Shannon, "They shouldn't be here. It's an emergency room for goodness sake" she added. I nodded my head in agreement, "Yeah, can't they see we're too busy" I added my two cents worth. At the time I had only been working in the emergency room for six months and I like all good junior staff, I was mimicking my seniors. You see, the problem was that we were ridiculously busy, with every bed full and the waiting time somewhere over four hours.

"I wish we could turn them away" Shannon said. Shannon was an incredibly skilled nurse. She had been working in the emergency room for over twelve years. Not only did staff turn to her when they needed help, but many junior, and not so junior doctors had even sought her advice. "Oh well, they'll just have to wait. Maybe they'll choose to go to their family doctor when I tell them that they will have to wait four hours" Shannon didn't sound hopeful.

What had Shannon so irked was that a mother had come in with her two children, aged four and six, both whom had diarrhoea, and both of whom could have been treated by their family doctor. There were always GP patients turning up to the emergency room and many, if not most of the nursing staff had at some stage vented their varying degrees of annoyance at this to one another. I genuinely felt this way myself at one time. But then that all changed.

A number of years ago one of my young nephews got sick with an ear infection. He ended up at the family doctor's clinic. One hundred dollars later he was sitting at home taking his antibiotics and analgesia. The doctor's fee was sixty five dollars, while the medicines took the other thirty five. My sister could afford it, but at the weekend he got worse and we had to see the emergency doctor. This time one hundred and fifty dollars was spent. Fortunately he got better. Unfortunately my other nephew developed an ear infection as well, and cost another one hundred dollars. We're not rich, we are just a normal family.

Now, when I see people in the emergency room who probably could have been dealt with by their own doctor, I am a different person. I'm a much more understanding person. It's not just about the money, it's about coming to the understanding that people often don't know where to turn to. They come to hospital for many reasons but they all have one thing in common. They are worried. For example: Why would you bring yourself to hospital in the middle of the night when all you have is diarrhoea. It's because you don't understand, maybe even you're scared. Sometimes people just need some simple reassurance and some education.

I do still look up to nurses like Shannon and I do still turn to my seniors for advice, but I no longer parrot their cries of despair at the inconsiderate GP patients. I haven't confronted them about their attitude, and it's too late now as I work elsewhere, but during my last several years in the emergency room I did my best to make those often less urgent patients feel at ease and feel important. I guess it's all about caring.