Does anyone have an opinion on?

31 July 2008 - 11:38pm — bdwhiddon

Does anyone have an opinion about Doctors who try not to feel when it comes to patients?  Watching HOPKINS tonight and a nurse said "Most of these kids don't get to me".  Does it offend anyone besides me?  My husband says if they did feel for all their patients they would be crying all the time.   I think having a heart is necessary.  Give me your opinion.
Thanks Dana

Comments

2 September 2008 - 8:35am — Visitor

Hi - just saw your post. I

Hi - just saw your post.
I think that what the nurse perhaps meant is that she doesn't become emotionally attached or involved. I don't work with sick children, but I do help asylum seeking children with their legal claims and these (the genuine ones) are often young people with horrific injuries inflicted on them by adults, not to mention the emotional scars. I also advise lots of adults with similar stories. If you sit and think about what it must be like to have gone through what they have then of course it will upset you and make you feel awful, but when it's your job there is definitely a natural barrier that goes up that allows you to do your job and not get swamped personally by the things you deal with every day.

Does that make sense? It doesn't mean that they don't have a heart.

16 August 2008 - 6:22am — Angus

As a health professional

As a health professional myself, I can tell you that it is possible to empathise with your patients, but if you felt deeply for each and every one's plight, you would rapidly burn out and not be able to do your job properly. I don't think the nurses mean that they don't care, they simply mean that they let it skate over the surface of their emotions enough so they understand, but not so much that they get too upset to do their job right.
 
BTW, some kids really do stick in their minds, so I think the care is deeper than those nurses on the program let on. When my son is in hospital for sleep studies, nurses still come up from ICU to visit him - he's now 4 and he left ICU when he was 6 months old!
 
Kate - mother to Angus who is unusual and cute, and Juliet who is usual and beautiful

15 August 2008 - 6:46pm — Kane

Doctors...

Hi Dana-
My opinion is that these doctors must get slightly desensitized seeing patient after patient, but if they did not feel then I do not believe they would be so passionate about their work.  My son's ENT dr.s are very professional and too the point, showing little emotion.  However I do believe they care for him and want the best for him.  Kane' s therapists, who have been working with him from 4 months of age, are definately very attached to him and show an emotional bond.  I do  believe that doctors try not to show emotion and that is okay with me.  I do not get offended because I know that my son's life is full of love and I trust that the doctors are doing their best. 
Kane's Mother, Julie :)

15 August 2008 - 5:28pm — Visitor

doctors

I do think having a heart does matter, when i hear the nurses talking like that i want to scream