Much to Learn
Jan. 28th, 2021 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michaelboyI don't miss my career job nearly as much as I do the hospital. From 2008-2018, I volunteered in an ER at a Pittsburgh hospital. In those 10 years, I learned more about life than I ever did as an engineer/IT manager. Both were good but one changed me more.
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Several rooms fill with staff and desperation as the floors collect unimaginable amounts of the plastic and packaging of medical litter. I bring a family a few bits of minor comfort – ginger ale, popsicles and graham crackers, but I wish I could bring them more. There is something very hard to see in their eyes when taking them to that room – the one with a sofa, leaf-print decor and soft lighting - where all I can say is the doctor will speak to you here. Every time this happens, it feels like lying when they ask how their loved-one is doing and I can’t tell them anything of substance. This is never easy, but ever important to me. Sometimes, I’ll go into an empty treatment room for a few minutes, collect myself and pretend everything is okay. It changes you in a humbling way to be around the great group of people who work there and experience this far more many times than I ever will.
* * *
Several rooms fill with staff and desperation as the floors collect unimaginable amounts of the plastic and packaging of medical litter. I bring a family a few bits of minor comfort – ginger ale, popsicles and graham crackers, but I wish I could bring them more. There is something very hard to see in their eyes when taking them to that room – the one with a sofa, leaf-print decor and soft lighting - where all I can say is the doctor will speak to you here. Every time this happens, it feels like lying when they ask how their loved-one is doing and I can’t tell them anything of substance. This is never easy, but ever important to me. Sometimes, I’ll go into an empty treatment room for a few minutes, collect myself and pretend everything is okay. It changes you in a humbling way to be around the great group of people who work there and experience this far more many times than I ever will.
