Patience is a Virtue
This is now week three of my internship, and I only have one more week left. I will be very sad to leave as I have thoroughly been enjoying my internship.
During this past week I have had the opportunity to work with patients alone. I did not realize just how different it would be from having someone with you all the time during treatment. The thing that I found to be most difficult was not handling the patients, but dealing with the patients' families.
I am doing my internship at a skilled nursing facility where there are a variety of levels of patients. With that, there are some families who never come around or may live in different states or countries, other families are involved, pleasant and truly appreciate us working with their loved one-and then there are those who are, to say the least, a little over involved. Some act as though they know more about what we are doing than we do, some are just genuinely worried which may come off as being impulsive, and others are just downright inappropriate and unpleasant.
This week patience has been a well-learned lesson. I realize that it is extremely important to be a patient person in this field. We come in contact with so many people in one day and no matter how rough things get you just have to take a deep breath, smile and think, "I'm changing someone's life for the better." Patience is a virtue, but something not often practiced especially in today's busy society. So we must make an even harder effort because as a health professional, it is a part of our job!