Learning to be patient

'Everyone has a limit to their patience', said Mrs. George- our new English lecturer in her very first class, 'and when that limit is reached... We need to ask God for more'. It almost made me laugh, for while she was still talking, I had eagerly waited for a reasonable excuse to blow up from a better experienced person.

Being patient is possible sometimes, but... I have my own doubts. Especially when I'm tackling non-compliant or difficult patients.

It's not easy to put up with a patient whose oxygen saturation is 100, respiratory rate and ABG reports are well with in normal limits, whose chest on auscultation reveals little abnormal sounds, complaining in a loud shriek, 'I'm dying! Why don't you give me some injections? Put me on the ventilator!' Let alone the decible levels, he also makes me dart around making phone calls to the radiology department for an emergency portable chest x-ray, to the CCU for a respule which is not available in the hospital pharmacy and drives me to get the respiratory therapist's attention who at that moment was perhaps sweet-talking with his girl friend. All this, when there are other patients who require my greater attention and care.
Isn't it hard to put on a smile and reassure him, to enter into his crisis cycle and understand him?
It's not just hard but impossible!
At that moment, contrary to my instinctive nature, I found myself asking for more- More of patience. Not because I was inclined to but because there was no other choice. After all, he is a patient under my care.

A saintly smile and a caring touch. I wonder how many more training situations such as these will make me truly acquire them :)