the perks of the job is that ppl respect you~ and sometimes they are filled with gratitude tho in actual fact is all i was doing was my job. After leaving medical and slaving away during the tagging period of the dreaded SURGICAL posting*shudders* (can u believe it? had to get permission to eat lunch,eat dinner, go home~ cannot leave the ward~ just fell short pf informing if i needed to shit) one of the relatives of a patient i took care of in medical came to give me a token of appreciation.
Unfortunately at that very moment i was in actual fact answering the call of nature (i snucked to the 1b toilet as there was too high a demand for toilet breaks in the ward i work in*stupid lazy surgical nurses~bah). Therefore i missed the chance to see who actually gave me the gift and why and why now about 3 months after the said patient had passed on.
Upon returning to the ward Mandy handed me an old school jewelry pouch. The type u get when u buy pendants from family jewelers.You know the type made of felt usually red in colour with the shop's name in gold printed inside. Anyhow i opened it up and inside was a jade pendant in the shape of~ a kid u not~ a kind of elongated vegetable.
Anyway thankfully there was anote accompanying it. it was a thank you note stating the patient's name date of admission and tel. number of the relatives.Truthfully the name rang no bell. A Muslim name but Mandy told me an Indian fella had delivered it.I searched frantically in my amnesic mind for a smidgen of recollection~ Data entry returned nothing~
I did the next logical thing. Call~ urks the phone was answered and strangely enough i sort of remember the voice. The son it seems had taken over his father's shop since his you noe wat and was thankful i had helped the family so much. I stupidly said that i don't remember who his father was and said that i'm not supposed to receive any gifts cos it was not ethical. Not that i cared bout the ethical stuff.Just wanted to sound professional hehe. Not that i had the chance to decline the gift anyway. Well anyway he wanted me to keep it and thanked me over and over again. What was i to do but pretend that i had a sudden recollection of his father~ urks pressure pressure.That seemed to make him happier. I said thank you and put down the hospital phone.(Did u think i would use my own HP?? kaka)
It then sruck me that in July there was this irritating family with family members who were doctors in UK who kept calling every single day.In fact several times in the morning afternoon at night suggesting plans of management. Pls la the guy had intracranial haemorrhage so extensive there was no neurosurgical management planned for him. All i did was explain to the family day in and day out that he had a poor prognosis. And very swayly i was on-call to do the CPR on him.
Gosh~ they appreciated me not for my incredible knowledge (or lack of it). My uni was right communication skills do play a big role in a patients management.
Still bewildered but proud.
2 comments:
grateful patients in Malaysia - 90% grateful, 10% complainers. in Singapore, it's the other way round. most are not only ungrateful after our arduous hours of explanation but also seek to complain for "complain" is their only vocabulary. even consultants face the music. tough.
hope you are still sane and continue to upkeep it!
Su ann~~ i tot i've lost you~ woo hoo so envious ur in Spore~ iam so homesick for spore tv and family of course~
Spore is a complaining nation~
I guess its just a way of life there. We get quite a lot of complainers from spore too and i waould say its 50/50 here~ not tht many grateful patients la
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