A PG-13 Rated Muddled, Raw, and Unscripted Confession

I have been thinking. I have been reflecting. And I decided I would write a confession of a “calloused healthcare provider” who is only human. Add this to the long list of other healthcare provider’s and/or daughters taking care of a loved one who are hoping to be understood. For me, they are one in the same. (Yes, I will be  using "I" and "we" interchangeably and grammatically incorrectly).  Recently I read a comment on a friend’s Facebook thread that struck a nerve. It is the nerve of judgement I feel every time non-healthcare professionals judge healthcare providers (like myself) as being cold hearted because we are willing to laugh in the face of death and pain, and then move on with life. The post read (through my perception) as follows: “a lot of healthcare people/EMS are more callous than the rest of society, therefore consider themselves cooler.” Being a registered nurse, therefore apart of the collaborative group of “healthcare providers” I felt a little prick of guilt, defensiveness, and anger at the sentiment. I took the label of being “calloused” to heart and reflected on it. Sure, I could be like many others and not care what people think of me, but If I am one hundred percent honest, I really do care if people see me as caring, empathetic, and kind versus calloused, prideful, and insensitive. I would say that most of the healthcare providers I work with also care that people see them as caring and empathetic. Heck, why would we keep doing the job we do. I can tell you, the money is not enough to keep a majority of people in the healthcare provider role. So, I thought I would write and share my 2 cents on us being “calloused, therefore cooler.”

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