Feelings at work

I started taking team as part of my on-the-job training to step-up to a staff nurse's roles and responsibilities. Fortunately, the census was low and the cases simple. With much help and guidance from my colleagues, I managed to take team 6 times in the past 1+ week.

Then early yesterday morning, there was an emergency operation for an in-patient whose condition had deteriorated suddenly during the night. The child's mother was naturally very affected by the need for an operation. Her tears flowed uncontrollably. It was to be the second operation in this young toddler's life.

I had grown to love this joyful, active and loving child. Even as I comforted the mother, I had to stop myself from feeling the mother's pain. For I had to get on with the day's work and I knew my low threshold for holding back my tears from my student days. [Note: Back then, I had to excuse myself to cry in the toilet when an elderly patient passed away.]

Fortunately, the child was stable post-op. I prayed in my heart for a speedy recovery for the child.

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28-June-2009 Addendum: The child recovered and was discharged a couple of days ago. It is really wonderful to see the child back to his usual cheerful, active and loving nature. While it was nice to receive a customised gift of appreciation from his parents, I was even happier to have played a small part in improving a child's life and appreciate the parents' trust in our care of their child.

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August-2009 Addendum: The child came back for a visit with his parents late one evening. After chatting awhile, he became tired. Then he pointed to his hospital room and said, “躺躺！” ["Lie down, lie down!"]

His father explained with amusement, "He is tired and wants to sleep back at his old [hospital] bed!"