Stop Treating Healthcare Providers Badly

They are tired too

Today I learned that healthcare workers are tired.

Today I learned that we treat healthcare workers like shit.

I had seen articles on social media about nurse and physician burnout in America. I heard my sons’ friends’ parents who worked in the field talk about how exhausted they are. Begging people to get vaccinated because they wanted a normal life again. They wanted to see their families and stop seeing so many people die because of this awful pandemic.

I visited an urgent care /walk-in clinic today near my house as I had been having a sore throat, cough, and body aches for a couple of days. I tried to make an appointment for a Covid-19 test at a pharmacy drive-through clinic but found no availability within 50 miles from me in the next 48 hours. So, the next day I did what everyone else was doing, got to an urgent care facility early, and stood in line. (We called them “doc-in-a-box” where I grew up).

The entire process took a little under two hours and was smooth except for a small hiccup.

While in the exam room, the PA was asking me about possible exposure dates to Covid, dates my symptoms began, my medical history, and what medications I was currently prescribed. I am an A+ student so I of course had all of this info prepared in my notes on my cell phone and was glancing at my notes as I answered her questions.

I was in the middle of updating her with my current meds as she had requested when she abruptly stopped typing on her laptop and said very firmly, “I need you to put your phone down!”. I was shocked for a few seconds and felt like a teenager who got caught with my pink Motorola Razr flip phone out in class (again); not the polite and prepared 31-year-old mother that I am. My sensitive A+ student personality did not like this.

In my head, I said, “OK, this is not how this is going to go down”. Trigger my flight or fight response. I gathered all my courage and I calmly explained that I was looking at my notes on my phone in order to answer her questions and not texting with my boyfriend. (OK, I didn’t say that last part.) I fully expected an apology, but nope, instead, she put a thermometer in my mouth and we went about the visit in glorious awkwardness.

My plea to all of you is this-be nice to our healthcare workers. To all of you like myself who were too busy to read the memo the first time around-the physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physicians, receptionists, all of them, they are tired. They are really tired of it all. They are burned out. I get it. Be nice to them, is that possible?

I don’t know who hurt my physician assistant today, but here’s to hoping I get a call back with my covid status. (Side note, I am fully vaccinated and my husband who is not a doctor but thinks he is, is betting on the flu or a bad cold).

Let’s try to be mindful that the healthcare providers are out here literally saving lives and they are people too. I was a little shaken up that my PA today misunderstood my lack of attention but I’m going to let it go and be thankful that my job is not nearly as stressful as hers.

I now plan to preface any doctor’s office visit by letting my provider know I may need to look at my notes on my phone to give them some info and then maybe I’ll have Uber Eats deliver doughnuts to the office, too.

Thanks for reading. You can read more of my thoughts here.