Jobs I really wouldn't want to do
No. 1 in a (very) occasional series.
Anything on an Early Pregnancy unit or ward. I’ve spent my fair share of time in these places and they are SO stressful. The waiting room is full of people in varying degrees of anxiety because you only go there if you’re bleeding or having potentially dangerous pain or have a crappy reproductive history or some other problem. And the pregnant people mostly have over-full bladders that they’re not allowed to empty until they’ve been scanned and that makes them very tetchy about the ubiquitous delays. And then the consulting rooms are full of people either being told bad news or being told that something is wrong but they’re not quite sure yet so they need to do some more tests but you’ll have to wait around in a state of not-knowing while they organise them. There’s usually someone in tears in a wheelchair somewhere (no idea why you get put in wheelchairs at the drop of a hat, but that seems to be the form). There’s a special lilac room at my local hospital where you get taken if you’ve had very bad news, with tissues and sofas and no windows. Not everyone receives bad news - some people get good news, like us the last two times when we’ve been for an early viability scan and seen the heart beating and known that that’s very good.
But the emotional labour that must be involved for the staff in dealing even with the people who get good news. The swings in mood that they must pick up and deal with. And I think they do deal with them, not just get hardened and insensitive. Certainly all the staff I’ve seen on these units have been lovely - caring and warm and conveying that they understand that the emotional impact is as important as the physical/medical stuff. One even remembered us from two years previously, which I thought was pretty damn impressive.
This is in sharp contrast to staff on (in)fertility units who are universally horrible, IME, and make you feel like an item on a conveyor belt and never even acknowledge that there is an emotional dimension to what is surely one of life's classic awful experiences. Also in contrast to the staff on the ICU recently, some of whom were quite friendly, but none of whom ever acknowledged the emotional aspects of having a newborn in intensive care.
barakta suggested that this might partly be a way that staff cope with the emotional difficulty of their work, and I buy that as an explanation. But I'm interested that the Early Pregnancy Unit at my local hospital doesn't seem to go that way. Of course workplaces build up cultures and maybe this one just happened to develop that way, or has a particularly emotionally literate manager or something. But I wonder if there's also something to do with the NHS legendarily being much better at dealing with acute problems than chronic ones. Infertility is chronic and Early Pregnancy deals with acute issues. Neo-natal ICU is both, but my impression from spending a week practically living there is that the staff experience their work as mainly chronic. All the babies there apart from LB were extremely premature and there for months. All the routines and systems were geared up for their needs (which is why we had conflicts with them about LB's care) which suggests that this is generally the case.
I'm also interested that while as a patient I really appreciate the emotional care for the EPU, I really wouldn’t want to have to do that emotional work day in day out. I want to receive it, but I don't want to have to provide it.
Anything on an Early Pregnancy unit or ward. I’ve spent my fair share of time in these places and they are SO stressful. The waiting room is full of people in varying degrees of anxiety because you only go there if you’re bleeding or having potentially dangerous pain or have a crappy reproductive history or some other problem. And the pregnant people mostly have over-full bladders that they’re not allowed to empty until they’ve been scanned and that makes them very tetchy about the ubiquitous delays. And then the consulting rooms are full of people either being told bad news or being told that something is wrong but they’re not quite sure yet so they need to do some more tests but you’ll have to wait around in a state of not-knowing while they organise them. There’s usually someone in tears in a wheelchair somewhere (no idea why you get put in wheelchairs at the drop of a hat, but that seems to be the form). There’s a special lilac room at my local hospital where you get taken if you’ve had very bad news, with tissues and sofas and no windows. Not everyone receives bad news - some people get good news, like us the last two times when we’ve been for an early viability scan and seen the heart beating and known that that’s very good.
But the emotional labour that must be involved for the staff in dealing even with the people who get good news. The swings in mood that they must pick up and deal with. And I think they do deal with them, not just get hardened and insensitive. Certainly all the staff I’ve seen on these units have been lovely - caring and warm and conveying that they understand that the emotional impact is as important as the physical/medical stuff. One even remembered us from two years previously, which I thought was pretty damn impressive.
This is in sharp contrast to staff on (in)fertility units who are universally horrible, IME, and make you feel like an item on a conveyor belt and never even acknowledge that there is an emotional dimension to what is surely one of life's classic awful experiences. Also in contrast to the staff on the ICU recently, some of whom were quite friendly, but none of whom ever acknowledged the emotional aspects of having a newborn in intensive care.
barakta suggested that this might partly be a way that staff cope with the emotional difficulty of their work, and I buy that as an explanation. But I'm interested that the Early Pregnancy Unit at my local hospital doesn't seem to go that way. Of course workplaces build up cultures and maybe this one just happened to develop that way, or has a particularly emotionally literate manager or something. But I wonder if there's also something to do with the NHS legendarily being much better at dealing with acute problems than chronic ones. Infertility is chronic and Early Pregnancy deals with acute issues. Neo-natal ICU is both, but my impression from spending a week practically living there is that the staff experience their work as mainly chronic. All the babies there apart from LB were extremely premature and there for months. All the routines and systems were geared up for their needs (which is why we had conflicts with them about LB's care) which suggests that this is generally the case.
I'm also interested that while as a patient I really appreciate the emotional care for the EPU, I really wouldn’t want to have to do that emotional work day in day out. I want to receive it, but I don't want to have to provide it.