Getting to Know Your Patients

After thirty years of working within a hospital setting,  I still catch myself forgetting why I’m there, and who these people are that I am seeing on a regular basis.  These people that, sometimes don’t speak, sometimes don’t look at me, or even look as if they care, when in fact, they are looking to me so see if I even do.  These people are my patients.  It’s a hard life knowing that your happiness at work is sometimes limited to the extent of the mood of that person laying in that bed, and again, we sometimes forget why we are there.

You are about to embark on a journey that will test your sense of humanity, your ability to recognize the pain of others and whether you are able to reach out to a soul that is sometimes silently calling for help.  Our classroom is so different from the real world, we sit at our desks, I lecture and attempt, every now and then, to make a joke, but during this time we must remain focused of what we will be called to do, and that is to be a person of not only physical assistance but also to be empathically connected to our patients.

Please watch these two videos produced by the Cleveland Clinic to help you see things from someone else's perspective, that perspective being YOUR patient.