Priestly matters and preceptors

We had an elderly priest as a patient recently.

The priest has a pleasant personality. His personal assistant who is a lay Catholic, however, is a different creature. Perhaps it comes from her genuine protectiveness of her boss. She demanded for single room upon arrival, even after we explained that the hospital was unfortunately fully booked for single rooms. She kicked up a fuss over the matter. My colleague in-charge Snr SN R was rather surprised by the assistant's behaviour, since she is a representative of the priest. Snr SN R remarked aside to us nurses, "By right, priests and nuns are supposed to be grateful for their lots in life."

On the discharge day, I handed out the Customer Survey form to the personal assistant as per our standard practice. She wisecracked, "Are you sure you want me to fill up this form? I will be very negative." To which I replied cheerfully, "Well, it's ok. Constructive criticisms help us to improve our service." Honestly, I meant it because if she does feedback on her perceived shortfalls in service, the management can then undertake actions to alleviate the situation if necessary.

That evening, I decided to search on the internet about the priest to find out more about this ex-patient. That's when I realize his stature in the local Catholic scene. Perhaps in their circles, people are used to reserving the best for the priest and his assistant. However, in a hospital setting, it is first-come-first-serve for room allocations. The only special considerations given are for medical and safety related issues.

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Anyway, along the same internet search, I re-stumbled upon the blog of my first preceptor at my first job after getting my first degree. As I recall, he was a supportive and instructive preceptor. He also has a sense of humour. He is now a Catholic priest. Guess I'm lucky to get good preceptors, both in my first career and my current one.