Little Things While Waiting For School

[prospect]

So, I walk into the Family Room, with my usual script.

"Hey, everybody, you can help yourself with coffee and tea here. Careful - the water's super-hot. Milk's down here in this fridge. If you need that phone, dial one for an outside line.."

(smile)

I woosh back out, with a cup of tea. Then back.

"Oh from Brazil? Like on vacation? So how did they do in the soccer World Cup? Oh, I'm sorry."

Blah-de-blah-blah about sport...

I retrieve a couple of meal trays. And do a little supply stocking. Then back to the family room, to eat my lunch sandwiches...

A Japanese woman with a small child.

"Hi there, you can have some coffee or tea if you want."

I chomp my sandwich.

The woman starts crying. And the little girl moves to another chair. She figures out that I work here. And looks up.

"Is my daddy dead?" Or is he alive?"

"Uuuuhhhmmm... Okaay...do you know what room he was in?"

"Number three"

"OK, I will ask the nurse, and I will be right back."

(A moment later)

"OK, don't worry. Your daddy just went to have a test. It is a machine that looks at his head. Then, the doctor's will look at the test, and see what is going on. Don't worry."

She walks right to the door of the Family Room, and insists on looking out.

"OK, those people work here. The people in the blue outfits are nurses. And that guy there in the green outfit is a doctor. The people with the green and yellow jackets drive the ambulance. Like that nice guy who drove your daddy earlier. They drop the people off, and give them to the nurses.

"It's just like kids at school sometime have to wear uniforms. And grownups have to do that, too.n

"Don't worry."

"What is your job?"

"Well, I just serve the meals. And clean the rubbish and change the sheets. I am just working to try to get into school to be one of the blue blue people.

"But that's not important.

"The important thing is that this is a really good hospital."

"Why?"

"Uuhhmmm, well, they have lots of fancy machines to test people. And they have lots of very nice doctors and nurses, and, uuuhhhmmm....

And, yeah, I will apply into school, and study hard, and pass tests and get a licence, and get a job.

And someday I will hear this question again, and I will a be a professional and it will be on me to give the bad answer. It will be something other than, "I'm just the meal-server..."

The big things will jolt you at first. Mangled or gross or smelly. But the things that stay in your mind are actually the small ones.

I can smile and serve a meal to literally anyone and everyone. I can see, here, and smell a lot of really gross stuff. I can suppress my gag reflex in both the literal and the metaphorical sense.

But, damn... A six-year-old asking me if her father is still alive...

Damn, I need something funny to happen soon.

[LocoStrange]

Well, if I am understand this right.... are you basically saying that your meal server job isnt important? I hope not because every job in a hospital is important. At my hospital, as a PCT, I depend on my servers because they help me do my job by takign care of the meals. They will come into the rooms and get the orders if the patients havent done so. They will bring the trays to the patients. They will put in the computer how much was eaten and so much more.

However.. "back on topic"..I do agree with you. The little things are the ones that stick inside your head. For example, I could take care of patient every day for a month but 3 months later, I wont remember their name. However, the patients husband/wife who shakes my hands and personally tells me thank-you... I will always remember even if I only met them for 2 seconds.

[nursel56]

It sounds like you are already aware of how important communication is and use an empathetic and gentle tone. That will serve you very well in healthcare whether you are in housekeeping, a meal server, or the Director of Nurses.

Being able to to observe the little nuances in people's behavior is an important skill, too. I don't think anyone going into nursing expects that there will never be sad moments, but they are outweighed by the positives or we couldn't work. There's nothing quite like the "thank you" you get from a patient or family member when you've done the thing that's just right or gone out of your way to make sure a need of their's is met. Best wishes as you move forward on your career path :)