Doctors Cannot Take The Inevitable Loss of Covid-19 Patients Personally
If we’ve done all that we can, then we should take comfort and stand tall
This pandemic has taken such a toll on the mental health of physicians and nurses. Yes, we all have bad days, and we all lose patients unexpectedly that can make our jobs difficult. At the same time, the sheer volume of death, destruction, and suffering brought on by Covid-19 is something I have never seen in my more than 20 years as a physician. It’s getting old, and we are not even close to being out of the Covid-19 woods.
I was talking with a colleague recently, and he told me how he feels like he has failed his patients who do not make it. He keeps wondering if he really did everything he could (I know he has, but that still didn’t stop him from second-guessing himself). I responded to him this way: “Don’t let what makes you beautiful destroy you.”
We really do care about our patients’ health, well-being, and their very lives, most especially in the ICU. Our patients in the ICU frequently come to us very sick and are almost “trying to die.” They place their utmost trust in us to help them weather the storm of their affliction. When we do everything we can to help them, and they get better, it is a feeling the description of which is truly beyond…
