It’s been only a week since I started my inpatient shift. It’s been a learning process, a new way of doing things!
Get to office, change into scrubs and different shoes, hand hygiene, don the precious N95 mask (we get one for each seven working days), hand hygiene again, ready for patient care. Wash and sanitize hands multiple multiple times, ignore for as long as possible the itchy nose and the hair strand that breaks loose. Repeat process when taking off mask for a brief lunch break and then repeat again when re-donning mask to continue. Late evening we end rounds, I head back to the office, repeat the process when removing and carefully storing the precious N95 mask for reuse the next day! Then EPIC time! Complete notes, change out of scrubs and shoes, bag them, Clorox wipe down of stethoscope, computer, desk and cellphone, and head off to home sweet home.
Enter garage, Clorox wipe the steering wheel and gear shift, seat, etc., change clothes, hot head to toe shower, don personally purchased surgical mask, and then get ready to meet my parents upstairs.
I am sure this “new routine” is not unique to me, and many can relate to the same.
I am so grateful to have my parents with me, to ask me how I am, how are my patients, and how was my day! Dinner is ready! What a blessing! We do not sit at the table together. I sit more than 10 feet away, back to my parents, fearful of infecting my elderly parents. They are understanding!
During our challenging time, fears, anxieties, unpleasant emotions, exhaustion abound. Each and every little act of kindness and compassion by each and everyone—whether at home or at work—goes a long way to reigniting our passion, our energy, and our motivation to go on.
At work I notice the more intentional nods or a deliberate and appropriately distanced pause with everyone we meet, the hierarchy norms abandoned! A palpable acknowledgement conveys the understanding of a common bond, a common unity. The authentic inquiry about each other and each other’s family, the open offering of hope, help and prayers reaffirms our human bond. As a team we are intentional to inquire about each other, our families. We find time to offer help, share work, affirm, laugh together, and to be quiet and shed tears together.
I think we each are hungry for and hypersensitive to these feelings, to be the recipient of these kind and compassionate acts of kindness and to offer the same! To do so gives us purpose. The unity that emerges provides the energy needed to go on, the comfort that reassures, and the feeling that we will be okay!
Compassionate action emerges from the sense of openness, connectedness, and discernment you have created. ~Joan Halifax
#REFLECT: In an environment that speaks of compassion fatigue, how can we develop “compassion vigor” and energy? How can compassion become a fountain of resilience and rejuvenation rather than depletion?
How is the coronavirus changing the way you think of self-care, community and resilience? As this challenging time unfolds, I am posting a daily quote on this blog with a reflection prompt. Please join in the conversation here or on Twitter with your thoughts or about what you are doing for self-care and care of others. My new book explores these ideas too: Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being.
A Day of Virus Vigilance
As a non-physician, I really was not fully aware of the tedious details of just making it through the day, with proper infection control. I get to work from home... And yet, we're all in this together, each of us in their own way, and we'll make it to the other end. I like the concept of compassion vigor...
Imagining all of this seems surreal. I see a positive emerging from this ... real caring, hierarchy set aside. It's a good thing.
I recall a time walking with you through a central part of the hospital and an elderly lady approached us. You called out her name and the two of you embraced. She was a former patient and as you inquired about her well-being, I stepped away and just observed. It was at that moment I knew what an amazing physician you are. Authentic caring...it's what is needed all the time, not just in times like these.