It’s no secret that healthcare providers often get desensitized when it comes to patient care. Between the long hours, mountains of paperwork, and constantly being on your feet – it’s easy to see how empathy can be lost along the way. However, many healthcare providers forget that our patients are also people as well. They have families, and friends, and lives outside of the hospital. And though we may want to take our time with each patient and make them feel like they’re our only priority, sometimes we just can’t do that. In this blog post, we’re going to explore both sides of the healthcare equation: Patient Care and Provider Care.

The Patients View:

As soon as I walked through the door of the hospital, I was assaulted with a wave of noise and confusion. Nurses shouted orders at each other while patients moaned in pain or boredom. It was like being in a madhouse.

I tried to find the emergency department, but quickly got lost in the maze of hallways. I passed rooms full of sick people, their families huddled around them in sadness or fear. It all looked so daunting.

Finally, I found the ER and saw that it was even busier than the rest of the hospital. People were crammed into every corner, waiting for their turn to see a doctor or be admitted to a ward. I felt like an animal caught in a trap

The patients enter the hospital from the emergency department they may often feel flustered and confused about how any patient care can be performed amid all the chaos. How do these nurses, doctors, and other providers get any work done not to mention treat sick people in their time of need? By some miracle, I suppose. Maybe they have superpowers that enable them to work at superhuman speeds. Or maybe they never sleep. Either way, I have no idea how they do it.

One hour passes……Two Hours pass……three hours pass…..NURSE!!!! What’s going on no one is checking on me! I’m hungry, I’m cold, when am I getting a room, what do my lab results say, Why aren’t you paying attention to me?

Often patients feel neglected or not cared for to the standard that is often expected in a healthcare facility such as a hospital. Most people have had to visit the emergency room at some point in their lives. Whether it’s for a broken bone or a bad case of the flu, the ER is always there to provide medical assistance when it’s needed. However, one of the most frustrating things about the ER is the wait. No matter how serious the problem, patients can often find themselves waiting for hours to be seen by a doctor. This can be especially difficult if the problem is time-sensitive, such as a heart attack or stroke. The long wait times can cause anxiety and stress, and they can also lead to patients making poor decisions out of desperation. While the reasons for the long wait times are complex, they underscore the need for patience when seeking medical care.

The emotional side of things

Emergency rooms are chaotic and busy places. Doctors and nurses are rushed and under a lot of stress. This can often lead to patients feeling neglected and forgotten about. You start to question if any of this is needed and if you can walk out. Can you go to another hospital or wait to go to an urgent care? When we are sick and we seek help, we want to feel that there is at least one person that cares about us and doesn’t just push us to the side. We want to feel important and want to feel that our sickness is an issue that should be fixed.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case in emergency rooms. With the high demand and limited resources, patients can often feel like they are just a number. This can be frustrating and discouraging, especially when you are already feeling your worst. However, it is important to remember that the staff in emergency rooms are doing their best to provide care for everyone in a timely and efficient manner. Sometimes this means that individual attention must be sacrificed in order to attend to more pressing issues. Patience and understanding are key when dealing with emergency room staff. Remember that they are doing their best to help you in a difficult situation.

The Provider’s View:

As healthcare providers, we often find myself getting desensitized to the patients we see. There are so many of them, and they all have their own stories and problems. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that each one of them is a person with their own life outside of the hospital. To provide the best care possible, it’s important to remember that empathy and compassion are key.

One of the most challenging things about being a healthcare provider is dealing with long wait times. Often, patients come into the ER with time-sensitive problems, but they end up waiting for hours to be seen by a doctor. This can be frustrating for both the patient and the provider. While there are many reasons for the long wait times, they underscore the importance of empathy and patience when providing medical care.

Some reasons why the ER wait is long

– The ER is understaffed

– There are not enough doctors to see all of the patients

– The hospital is short on supplies

– The ER is overcrowded & a high volume of critical patients

Being a provider is exhausting, both physically and mentally. You are constantly on your feet, moving from patient to patient, and performing a variety of tasks. You have to be able to multitask and prioritize, as well as keep up with the ever-changing needs of your patients. You must also be able to document everything that you do, which can be difficult when you are tired and things are constantly happening. However, it is important to remember that your patients are counting on you. They need you to be calm and collected, even when you feel like you can’t take it anymore. They need you to be their advocate and their caretaker. So you push through the exhaustion because you know that your patients need you.

Emotional Side of things

Also one forgets the emotional toll it sometimes plays on a person to see someone fighting for their lives, and often see the person lose. During the Covid-19 pandemic, providers had to endure the constant day-to-day performing CPR or placing a patient on life support, and they tend to other patients who are slowly crashing themselves. Then be tasked with leaving the countless lives you’ve seen lost at the door and expected to live a regular life with loved ones, all just to repeat the same thing the next day. Becoming desensitized is a defense mechanism many providers have to develop or they won’t survive in healthcare for long. I can’t tell the countless stories providers have of finding that patient that they are attentive and care for to the best of their ability with the optimism that the person will recover from their illness, just to find out the next day that the same person as passes away. Moments such as those can be taxing on providers but they must carry on to help the next person with the same hopes that they will recover.

Healthcare is a complex system with many moving parts. From the perspective of a patient, it’s easy to feel forgotten and neglected in your time of need. From the perspective of a healthcare provider, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle and forget that each patient is an individual with their own unique needs.

However, by maintaining empathy and compassion for our patients, we can provide the best possible care. Bridging the gap between Patient Care and Provider Care is essential to ensuring that everyone receives the quality of care that they deserve.

So, what have we learned? Patients and providers both have a valid perspective in the healthcare system. Neither side is wrong, they are just coming from different angles. Most importantly, when patients and providers can communicate and understand one another, it leads to a more positive experience for everyone involved. What do you think? Is there anything that I missed in this article that should be known? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

If you’re a healthcare provider, how do you keep yourself from becoming desensitized to your patients?

Do you think that more empathy would help to bridge the gap between Patient Care? Or something else?