What it means to work as a young doctor in the emergency room

Sometimes she is insulted, sometimes called an angel: Our author is a doctor in the emergency room. She describes what the hospital operation demands of her – also privately. And talks about a patient she thinks about often.

Kind, you look terribly tired, go to sleep.”

We’re in room 3. I know that. She, on the other hand, has no idea where we are. Or who I am. She also doesn’t know that it’s not the middle of the night, but 8 o’clock in the morning. I’ll go to sleep as soon as we find a bed for her. On station. She spent the night with me in the emergency room.

The hospital is a life changing place for most who walk in. Not just for patients and their families. Also for those who work there. The hospital gives. But it also takes a lot. It took more from me than I sometimes want to admit. My health, after contagion and severe covid infection. My relationship when, after six years, a wonderful man no longer wanted to see how the building up of others meant my steady decay at the same time. The hospital took away my idealism and my belief in the fundamental good in people. Or at least in the HR departments and management.