Thursday, February 09, 2012

It's the people

Here's a wonderful post by David Lee Scher, who retired from the practice of medicine to pursue a career in mobile health technologies.  Some excerpts:

What I will surely miss most are the priceless personal interactions I experienced on a daily basis. I spent most of my days in the hospital. I will miss the janitorial and food service workers with whom I would have chats ranging from the weather to their families. I will miss the therapists (physical, respiratory, occupational, and others) who I encountered when seeing my patients. I will remember fondly the talks with nurses asking how a certain patient was doing when I arrived on the floor to make follow-up rounds after procedures, or listening to the gallows humor in the middle of the night when in the hospital after seeing a patient in the ER or a consultation on the floor.

The camaraderie among hospital workers is unique, and one that many will attest to as being as important as family.  I have shared profound experiences involving patients with them

[T]he myriad of persons involved in the care of those patients is a culture of dedication, teamwork, and human kindness that I will always treasure and hope is never under-appreciated by anyone.

2 comments:

Tom said...

This post describes well part of what has made my career as a hospitalist for 14 years very enjoyable. Usually I describe it as "I like to wander around the hospital."

Marilyn Morrissey said...

From Facebook:

Hospital work is a world unto itself. Dr. Scher writes eloquently about some of the personal rewards.