...that I love my job?Yes, I do. It's been along time since I've been able to say this, but I would do this job for free. Love, love, love working at a community health center.
Why? you ask (yes, I heard you). Because it is NOT work, it is really a ministry. Are my patients aggravating? Yup, sometimes...just like me. Are they needy? Yup, sometimes...just like me. Are they crabby and unreasonable? Yup, sometimes...just like Steve.
But, they are wonderful, varied, beautiful human beings. Sometimes smelly, often unintelligible (do to my lack of ability to speak Spanish, Russian, Bosnian, Croatian, Burmese, and southern) and many times with a bit of a chip on the shoulder. But, one look in most patient's eyes is enough. They want someone to care about them. To make them feel that their well being is important, that they have been listened to, and to recognize them as individuals, not just an invisible member of the lowest class. They are smart and funny. They are beautiful chubby babies and onery toddlers, tired parents and weary elders. They are men who have lost their hourly wage job and are ashamed of not being able to support the family. They are women who run the family and make it look easy. Parents who worry about their children, and children who are worried about their aging parents.
What do they have in common? For the most part: not much money and a health care system that doesn't have a place for them.
I love working to solve the puzzle of what is wrong with someone. To hear "you do that just like _______ (fill in the name of a doctor or practitoner that I respect) And best of all, those rare occasions when someone returns and says "You made me better."
How can you not love a job like this?
1 comment:
Mary,
I LOVE your blog...I didn't even realize you blogged until today. You are a very talented writer! And yes, I too am very thankful for a job that I love, even though it can be very frustrating/bored/challenging/draining/etc/etc/etc at times! We are very blessed!!
Hillary
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