Afternoon Nap

I was stationed at the clinic a few days ago. And one of the patients came in. Sometimes, my opening question would be, “So, how are you today?”

And this patient suddenly burst into tears.

Putting the papers aside, I positioned myself to face this patient directly, I knew the disease follow-up questions had to wait, there’s a more pressing matter to attend to- to find out the cause of this unexpected turn of events. It’s not unusual that this kind of episode to happen, but it’s also not frequent.

This was one of the people who still must come to work throughout the pandemic. Due to the increased workload, staffs were rearranged, more work coverage for them and less off-time. Those factors and key-in other personal and non-personal factor(s), life can sometimes be too overwhelmed.

When this patient described what’s been going on leading to the sudden outburst, it was as though I was looking at myself a while back, not too long ago, recurrent in different timings & situations. It all felt too real, I needed no further probe to understand what’s going on.

I was that person.
I was in this person’s shoes.

I had no courage to call or contact Psychological First Aid back then. But I know this person needs it, and an MC to rest at least for the day.

Work burnout is real.

If someone indicates that he or she is stressed out, on whether they realized that it’s a burnout sign or not, do take a little bit of time to listen to them. Sometimes, just having someone to listen would be a great help. 

Especially now.