A word of thanks makes a difference

IT is never easy to be a doctor. You will need to be tough inside out.

With the tremendous amount of patient load and paperwork, we have to keep a balance and sometimes we do spend lesser time with the patient’s family members.

We cannot afford to explain to each and every one of the family members of the patient’s daily progression in great detail.

Most of the time we can only explain to a handful of family member who are present during our ward rounds and they will pass the message around. This only applies to patients who are stable.

On the other hand, we will always make an effort to have a family conference with family members of critically ill patients.

There are many occasions where doctors are shouted at when they don’t comply with the requests of all the family members.

Yes, this is because our main concern is the care of the patient.

In emergency situations, we do not have the luxury of time to explain situations to family members as every second lost reduces the chances of successful resuscitation.

Resuscitation is stressful and you wouldn’t see doctors smiling. Thus, some may misinterpret this as being rude and insensitive to the feelings of family members.

Here, we put life above anything else.

Sometimes we are verbally abused, accused of killing the patients because family members refuse to accept our explanations.

We are sorry for their loss and we understand that they are grieving, but doctors have feelings too.

It is disheartening when you

get complaints on the effort of saving lives just because you accidentally neglected the feelings of those alive.

The expectation of the public is high and we are trying our best to treat patients not only with medication but also with love.

A word of thanks makes a big difference. It encourages us to continue fighting this battle.

Sadly, most of the time there will be silence or mere mumbling words of thanks or stacks of complaint letters at our door step.

The moment we set our mind to be doctors, we are prepared to sacrifice ourselves. But most of the time, our families and friends become the real victims.

We sacrifice out time so that you can have more time with your loved ones. We sacrifice our meals so that you can have yours. We sacrifice our sleep so you can sleep soundly.

And, we sacrifice our health so that you can be healthy.

All we look for in return, is that our patients leave the hospital happily and a word of gratitude.

DR A

Kluang