We expect every healthcare worker to be very nice to other people. Expectations hurt. We all want to be treated well medically and ethically. The medical profession gives boundless rights to healthcare workers, and they are angels.
On the other hand, what are they getting? Please don’t compare money with emotions. Have we ever switched roles and seen how you would feel if you needed to tell your patient that you are suffering from cancer or a chronic disease? Heart stops?
This is what healthcare workers used to do every other day. When medicine wouldn’t be able to save the life of the patient, the healthcare worker asked to go for Qalma-e-shahdaat. In which the person who has very limited time has to recite this Qalma. Have you ever felt this way? How depressing it is that you are not only telling the people but also encouraging them to have a smooth departure of souls.
Healthcare workers are also humans, and these kinds of events made them suffer from chronic compassion fatigue. These angels are dealing with this 24/7. They also feel depressed and low, but they still stand firm to give the best possible care to other patients. They are witnessing what a human can do, which is highly inhuman and causes turbulence.
I’m a healthcare worker, so let me share with you my experience. A lady came into the ER because her husband threw acid on her and her mother. That lady’s mother died at that very moment. How cruel. This lady has to bear two pains: the pain of acid being thrown at her and the pain of the death of her mother. Can you imagine yourself in this situation?
As a healthcare worker, you need to give them the best possible care, but at the end of the day, you focus on the things that show how cruel humans can be.
This makes you terrible. A doctor who used to do postpartum shares the story that a father raped his daughter and crushed her skull so no one could get a clue. Yes, this is something a doctor is claiming.
Can you imagine how a doctor can face the world when he is intricated with these kinds of human behaviour?
These are the facts that lead to compassion fatigue. On the other hand, which adds to the emotional trauma of healthcare workers, Pakistan has a shortage of healthcare workers, which means that people are willing to work extra hours. They are bound, and they aren’t able to track their own health.
It is my humble request that you be very compassionate if you get the chance to talk to any healthcare workers. They are suffering as well when they see inhuman behaviour.
Arisha Irshad Ali
Karachi
Karachi