From a surprise birth to a sudden death, two case studies illuminate the highs and lows of NHS life
In 1999, aged 18, I had a summer holiday job as a ward clerk at St Thomas’s hospital in London. I’d been placed there by a temp agency and had no interest in medicine at the time. The work itself felt routine, banal. In a high-ceilinged Victorian ward overlooking the River Thames, I logged patients on to the computer system, chased down medical notes and X-rays and made many cups of tea for the nurses. But although I hadn’t especially wanted to work there, and was doing it to fund the next year of university, the hospital quickly became a profound environment for me.
It was the patients who changed things. They came from all parts of society, from rough sleepers to aristocrats. Some were dying rapidly, some were temporarily ill, others chronically so. Some shouted and sobbed, while some did everything to avoid emotion. I didn’t understand much of what was going on, but I could see how vital it was and how different it was to what I saw in my everyday life.
Continue reading...from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3hZ7cdc
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق