'Star' of my hospital

I have learnt some of the biggest lessons in my life by being in the company of selfless people. One such name that has always rekindled hopes, even in the state of uncontrolled inner turbulence, in me is Sister Mercy Mathews. She is, without a second thought ever, matron of Khetarpal Hospital and one of the best persons that stepped in the realms of my life ever. I am yet to see a more disciplined individual than her. She has never turned a minute late for her duties in past 15 years.

Most of my old patients know her, and take pride in the fact of knowing her, for they believe to have been looked after by the most angelic personality ever. Sister Mercy remains imperturbable, and glowing even in the face of prevalent chaos and mounting work load. She, possibly, is alien to the concept of any other vocal tone except to that of utter compassion and care. Many a times, patients’ relatives, in a frenzied state, tend to speak harsh, but that hasn’t came across her way of displaying the most beatific and saintly spirits.

I have seen her fighting some of the callous battles of life alone with undeterred belief in the power of hope and belief; needless to say she has been able to overcome every possible atrocity that crossed her life. I make it a point to appoint the newly joined staff nurses under her supervision so that they may take a slice of life and attempt to reinvent themselves. I have never had a patient complaining directly about her, and the list of patients who genuinely express eloquent words for her selfless nature, compassionate attitude and kind gestures seem to be on a constant uphill. 

A Nurse. An Angel In Motion.

• They have taken care of my patients as if they were their own kids.
• They have spent sleepless nights in the wards, ICU and Casualty so that the patients can bear a sound sleep.
• They have stricken friendship with desolate patients so that they don’t feel homesick.
• They have refused to leave from duty if an emergency arrived in the waning end of their shifts.
• They have made sure that every nook and corner of the hospital looks spick and span.
• They have abandoned visiting their home towns if there was a shortage of equivalent man power in the hospital.
• They always brought home cooked delicacies when they returned from their ritual of once a year visit at their native place.
• They have cleaned the spilled vomitus and blood stains when the ward boy was not in sight.
• They have juggled hard to learn computers so that they can help the hospital’s vision of keeping the systems as per the advanced standard protocol.
• They have attended their duties even when they are down with viral fever or acute gastritis.
• They have cold sponged the infant suffering with ‘febrile convulsions’, even when the child’s parents slowly drifted into sleep.

Just observing them at work makes me retrospect and realize that I have been bestowed with tons of knowledge by all the staff nurses I ever came in contact with. They have this altruistic attitude to life, and they never make qualms about petty things. A doctor is incomplete without an equally capable army of allied nurses; patient management is a comprehensive process. A nurse is someone most close to God; a mother figure, a sage in motion, an emotional healer. I wish every person of the world gets to know that the nurses sacrifice a lot to make sure that the ailing ones start gaining health again. I don’t think I can do anything that can ever match the favors that have been bestowed over me by nurses. One needs to have this in her soul, in her tissues to be as selfless as a nurse is.

A Nurse is one of the most divine animate beings. I salute to their spirit and their cause.

Hey Stethoscope, Do You Have A Soul?

I seldom wonder, what all whirls in the mind of a patient who happens to be at the wrong side of consultation desk with a doctor. The heightened hope, the abundant anxiety and the heaps of anticipation; all make a confused assortment in the shallow sulci of patient’s brain. The doctor is observed and studied with electric eyes, whether he is paying enough attention to the array of symptoms; or seems pre-occupied? If psychomancy would have been as easy as humming a nursery rhyme, the patient would have deciphered every smidgen of scientific knowledge dwelling deep in the cerebral cortex of the clinician. The patient normally comes with pre-occupied set of answers, only if the clinician is clever enough to pop the right question at the right time.

The white-coat syndrome threatens to attain monstrous manifestations to the ill prepared patient. The sight of sphygmomanometer and stethoscope, the smell of fumes of formalin, the sound of tongue-twisting medical syllables; all make the patient feel like tittle drop of water in the gory fire of tropical forest. The occasional question put forward by the all-knowing clinician that trespasses the mental boundaries of the ordinary person, makes the patient dilapidated. The Greenwich longitude starts settling with flashy pace. The patient finally adjusts his focal length to dire measures and attempts to observe the illegible handwriting of the doctor; the hopes get dashed again.

Now comes the counseling time. The good doctor will give ample of time to the patient and his most scintilla of concerns with big ears. The rapport establishment exercise does half the work for ideal acquiescence with the treatment. I feel that patient should be given every opportunity to express himself as many tangled cases get solved with the focus on seemingly inconsequential points in symptomatic narration by the patient. We are here to treat illnesses; we should make our personalities more approachable, more interactive and gentler.

Top 10 Problems That Nurses Face

1. The venepuncture site (canula insertion point) gets blocked again.

2. The patient asks too many questions about finer nuances of the disease (The nurse invariably thinks about the silent glance and understanding gesture that the patient portrayed when senior doctor was taking rounds…. That was fine, but what happened to him now? Is he testing the authenticity of my medical degree? That’s fine. But please stick to the syllabus).

3. The patient seems to have a fascination with pressing the nurses call button (What lies in a reason?).

4. The little kid in the ward defies the boundaries of producible sound while crying inconsolably; and does not succumb to the usual baits.

5. A doctor is taking ward rounds and another doctor demands the attention of the same nurse for a different patient.

6. You have 5 trauma patients for whom you have to check vital parameters every 30 minutes. And it’s the busiest night shift already.

7. The anxious patient suffering with Hepatic Encephalopathy with Sub Acute Intestinal Obstruction is adamant at taking the Ryle’s tube out. He has done it 3 times in past 6 hours and you are mumbling divine hymns.

8. Before you take the over from the preceding duty nurse, you are called by a anxious looking resident doctor (its his first day of joining) in the expectation of getting a thorough orientation of the ward, the hospital and the life. Predicament can’t get louder.

9. Though you have finished with the Herculean forms and draconian quality assurance paper-works, you get thumbs down for that not-so-neat handwriting by never-pleasing horde of quality assurance guys.

10. The patient complaining to doctor that ward nurses seldom listen to him (though you religiously put every inch of an effort to help the guy in disguise).