Waiting

With my family's recent medical emergency I've had the opportunity to do a lot of waiting. Waiting for doctors to round, patient transport to go to imaging studies, nurses to come with medication. What a helpless and frustrating experience for those of us who usually find ourselves exerting some control over the situation. At the end of the day I find myself absolutely exhausted from seemingly doing absolutely nothing.



I returned to work yesterday cognizant of this and not wanting to leave my patients waiting too long for anything. As I gave each patient a little more individualized attention than I usually do I found myself fall further and further behind. The result was that patients found themselves waiting longer and longer for me when that's what I was trying to prevent!



The Country Doctor