In addition to all the other types of pediatric patients I've been seeing, I've been working with hematology/oncology patients also, and something happened so moving, we all had to have a meeting for it.
Psychology, Social Work, the attending MDs, Child Life Advocacy, Rehab....
All the services got together to....
talk about their feelings.
Recently, we had a slew of patients 'passing away', or 'expiring', or in simple terms, 'dying'. (whatever your preferred nomenclature would be) In my opinion, you work in an oncology ward, you'd expect a couple to go that way. But it was interesting to listen how everyone felt, different viewpoints, feeling guilt, remorse, sadness... that the patient they tended to for months, was no longer around. Especially if it's multiple cases in one week. Thus, aggregate grief.
How do you grieve for one patient, but almost immediately have to turn off those feelings to treat another patient on the oncology floor? Interesting question, yes?
Lesson learned: no matter how much or how many times you treat a patient, be professional, be objective, and don't get attached. If you can't deal with it and continue to function on your job, you need to find a new line of work.
My opinion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment