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Something that I don’t think people who “aren’t in the business” don’t realize. These patients who are presenting for care are ALL critically ill. In a normal day even a big hospital only has a handful of these cases and the resources a case like that suck up are immense. In not only supplies but emotional drain on the staff. A “bad outcome” here and there does send an emotional shockwave through the staff on a good day. They understand it, it comes with the territory but it does take a toll.

What they are experiencing in NYC right now I suspect, is for each team member admitting these folks they are seeing something that usually happens once every few day happenings every hour. Watching that many people die hour after hour is not their “normal day” by any stretch of the imagination if they were all MIs. Imagine all that while wearing PPE.

When I was young there was a book. “The House of God”. The First Rule of The House of God is, “The patient is the one with the disease.” You really have to remember that to maintain emotional distance. These people are having to do this in an environment where suddenly YOU could be the one on the stretcher. It must be a serious emotional challenge to function in that environment. One the #s fail to inform.

[Something that I don’t think people who “aren’t in the business” don’t realize. These patients who are presenting for care are ALL critically ill. In a normal day even a big hospital only has a handful of these cases and the resources a case like that suck up are immense.]

Seems to me that they’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they need people to show up long before they’re critical. On the other, they don’t want every hypochondriac in their area to get in line at the hospital. In your experience, what’s the hangnail-grade hypochondriac to terminally-ill stoic ratio?

[These people are having to do this in an environment where suddenly YOU could be the one on the stretcher. It must be a serious emotional challenge to function in that environment. One the #s fail to inform.]

I think I can empathize with them. They’re suddenly thrust into an environment where they’re taking incoming fire, but that fire is literally invisible, so they can’t even duck. People who go into the profession aren’t soldiers - they’re not generally used to taking incoming, and even soldiers are jolted by it the first time it occurs.