E-Magazine: A Healthcare Carol: Highlighting the Mental in Environmental

‘Tis the season everyone! I’m sure some of you have heard the tale, “A Christmas Carol”. To sum up the plot, a grumpy older gentleman, Scrooge, has been acting very selfishly and mercilessly. Therefore, three spirits - past, present, and future- enlighten him on these aspects of his life. After being cured of the blinding forces of greed using kindness and a wake-up call, he continues his life serving others. Look at Scrooge using one of the four core HOSA values! Now, let me be your spirit to give you a little insight into healthcare. Except, I won’t be the past, present, and future, I’ll show you the ups, downs, and everything in between while analyzing mentality in different health environments. Let’s go!

From bustling to school and working within phenomenal organizations *cough, cough*, you’ve gained knowledge that will guide you in your career. I’m sure everyone has been asked at least once, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Personally, I don’t know yet. First I need to contemplate whether or not I will ever grow up. However, what I do know is that it will be in healthcare. Being in this field comes with its trials and tribulations, and seeing the “...beautiful day to save lives.” (Shepherd, Grey’s Anatomy)

We have the days that reassure us as to why we joined the medical industry. Whether it's the opening eyes of a newborn you just delivered, gratitude from the family of a patient you just saved, or even a simple smile from a patient who hasn’t uttered a single word.

*Flashback: When working with patients, especially geriatrics and pediatrics, anxiety may consume them. This affects the quality of care and patient outcome significantly. When working in pediatric dentistry, sometimes I’ll talk to the patient about life and hold their hand to lower their fears of being treated. In other moments, I’ll be assisting a geriatric patient in an ambulance. This was a case of back pain and being unable to move. He was scared, cold, and confused. Therefore, I grabbed a blanket, held his hand, and told him the EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and I was right there for him. *

33 percent of people have a fear of contracting an illness, 40 percent have anxiety over paying medical bills, and up to 50 percent experience phobia when visiting a hospital. This is why it is important to talk TO patients and not AT them, get down to their level, reassure others, and ensure proper communication is made. Sometimes communication may be a problem, but just knowing that there is someone beside you is calming. By doing this, we can help the statistic.

Though the happy outcomes are the reason why we do the job, the harder days are how we get to the better moments within our careers. One must remain steady in the hectic storm to get anything accomplished, whether that’s in life or a healthcare atmosphere. As a leader, people look to you for guidance.

You may walk through life hearing, “ Hey, I need this completed by then!”, “Can you take care of that?”, “Did you get this done, yet?”

And once you walk into a scenario, you’ll be the leader giving demands, “You, call the police!” “You, go get help!” “You, grab the AED!”

For example, when in emergency medicine, everything moves at hyper-speed, hence why it’s called an emergency. To keep things moving and prevent further casualties one must learn the fundamentals while comprehending the up-and-coming techniques. Your knowledge is an exquisite tower, it may be tall but, without a base, it will fall. By keeping up with concepts and techniques, you not only lower your anxiety but also patient fatality.

*Flashback: When riding an ambulance, you either can’t catch your breath when going from scene to scene or you’re holding your breath waiting for the next dispatch. We finally receive a call and are racing over. A patient has collapsed on the side of the highway due to seizures. We had to get her on the stretcher; put her in the ambulance; give her an IV; check her blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, pupils, skin, etc.; and more. All of this was completed in approximately ten minutes or less. *

This is why practice makes proficiency. There are surgeons, respiratory therapists, paramedics, and more that are phenomenal at what they do because they know the basics and use them to continuously improve patient outcomes in a quick-paced manner.

But, even if you know every procedure in the book, there are some moments when you will lose a life and it may not be your fault. Or, you’re going through medical school and you’ve been running on one hour of sleep, coffee, and a fading dream. In these difficult times, one must ask, “Why?”

*Flashback: I’ve had a learning experience at a cadaver lab, which is an establishment that holds deceased people who donated their bodies to science. After being able to look at and touch different organs, perform intubation, needle decompressions, use a bag valve mask, and more on real people, I now understand the uneasy nature of people around those that passed. Several students had to step out and take a minute to breathe, that’s okay.*

Sometimes the journey may be intense and we need a moment to step back and breathe. During this time, reflect and contemplate, “Why am I doing this?” It is when you find the true answer to this question that you’ll have the strength to continue on the path of healthcare.

I’m sure that most of you have heard exercise, eating and sleeping regularly, talking to others, etc. are what will help you in tough times. While all of this is great, the information means nothing until you do something with it. It is as if you are treating a patient and, as a medical professional, you know which medications need to be administered but you choose not to use them, which is medical malpractice. The patient will ultimately not survive. If you wouldn’t do this to someone else, why would you do this to yourself?

After traveling on this adventure of A Healthcare Carol, let’s put preach into play and reflect. When the clock strikes 3 am, I'm sure you can find a student cramming for a test or a doctor being called into the hospital. Stress is prevalent at any stage of our lives. It is how you deal with the stress that makes you who you are. Going back to Dr. Derek Shepherd, he proclaims, “ I’m a human being. I make mistakes.” Yet, he is still a world-renowned neurosurgeon in the universe of Grey’s Anatomy. While this is not real life, what’s true is when we learn from those mistakes we receive another beautiful day to save lives.

-Alina Abraham