Respiratory Apathy

We work in an unpredictable world of the hustle and bustle, ABGS, and vent alarms. We say we treat the patients as if they are our own, but we all know how we can become desensitized, used to it all. Critical care becomes normal. We become immersed, a part of the whole in PICU, NICU, TICU, or ED. We see the patients, we treat them, transport them, intubate them, and terminally extubate some. What happens on the day that the patient is one of your own? It doesn't matter if that means one of your family, friends, or one of your team. What would happen if the distinction between patient and caregiver is suddenly less clear, would you change your way of doing things, have more reverence, more compassion. Would you do anything differently at all? That is the question each of us must ponder and a reality one must admit if only to ourselves. Because honestly, if you are not treating someone else's child as if it were your own, someone else's mother, husband, or friend as if they were yours, perhaps it is time to reconsider your passion for the field. We must never go on aimlessly, mindlessly and without heart and simply do our job. We have a great responsibility to our patients and our area to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Treat that patient, all of them, as if they were your own. Because it is necessary for not only the sake of the patient, our reputations, our field, not to mention it is the right thing to do.