Smell the Daisies
Shawn Burger
Have you ever noticed sometimes that patients can be a bit down? In some cases, this is a true understatement. Most of us have seen this… the patient slouched over in their wheelchair in the hall. Nurses walking by, visitors, people in suits, all going from one point to another; all doing their “job.” I have walked hallways, glimpsing through the open doorways to see patients, people lying in bed, disoriented, weak, without purpose. We even have a diagnosis for it… “Failure to thrive.” I have even seen it in our Outpatient clinics… the patient sitting slouched in the lobby, waiting for their appointment, frustrated, in pain, frustrated that they are even there. You can even see it in their eyes, “what happened to me? Back in the day, I was …”
I was reminded of this thought recently in a meeting. It was asked “what” our purpose was? “why” do we do what we do? These are typical questions by group leaders to engage in discussion… but I find that most of us simply roll our eyes because we have heard the same things over and over through the years. That is we “all” care about the patient. We “all” want to make a positive difference. After a while, we’re not sure what it means?
Then the group leader did something a bit different… She stood at the front of the room with a daisy and exclaimed that this “daisy” represented our lives. Our patients’ lives. She held the “daisy” up for all to see. Then she pulled a petal from the flower and said this was our “youth” and let it fall to the table… She then pulled another petal and said this was our college life and we watched it fall to the table… another petal pulled and said this may be our time with our kids, and we watched it fall to the table… petal after petal was pulled. Each representing a part of our lives, our family, our world, and our health, each being plucked and with each I watched them fall to the table. When she was done she held that “daisy” up for each of us to see… there was a single pedal remaining. Can you imagine why the patients we serve to feel the way they do? It’s no wonder that some patients give up, lose hope, and the purpose of trying any longer. Do you think they want to do that “exercise?”
As we go through our days… it’s not just the “T’s” and “I’s” that are important. Anybody can hit a RUGs level; see a patient, document, and bill… There are a half million people in the US alone that do what we do…
But I truly believe we do it better! We do it with a common purpose! We can stop and catch our breath, in so doing, teach others how to do the same and appreciate the opportunities that are given to us to stop and smell the “daisies”