Patients Progress

During my placement in ICU, there was a young girl that I was treating and because we had spent alot of time together, we got along well and I began to look forward to my hour that I spent treating her. When I had first seen her she had just had a major operation and within the next 2 weeks, she had progressed so well and was ready to be discharged to the ward. A week later, the same girl was readmitted into ICU and looked completely different. She was intubated and her face was swollen and she was getting worse. When I noticed her name on the ICU ward list, I felt sick inside and did not know how to react. Similar situations occurred throughout my placement and by the end of the 5 weeks I felt quite emotionally drained.

When treating patients, it is hard not to become emotionally attached and I know that you are meant to be professional but it is hard to see someone go through so much especially if you expect the person to recover and it does not happen this way. I probably felt the way I did because I have not seen much death or experienced anything like that in my life, but when seeing the family and friends crying and reacting to the bad news it is very hard to not feel anything.

The question on how to empathise with your patient but not get emotionally involved is very difficult to answer. I understand it will get easier with more exposure and experience in the field but on the other hand I would not want to become someone who does not feel anything when a patient passes away. If anyone has any views or advice on how to keep this balance, I would be very grateful.