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Yesterday, I noticed a sign on the wall at our hospital just outside our office. Taped above a table, it reminded doctors to bring lunch trays back to the lunchroom, not left on the table near the door. Far beyond the standard business casual passive aggressive mandates, this sign climaxed in a fury of times roman 26 bold: "Doctors, your lack of consideration for staff and patients is horrifying!!!" Really? Not the lack of health care in the USA, that our patients wait by the hundreds to be seen. That's A-OK. But dishes not done, scourge of modern civilization. All this for a lunch tray hurriedly left between patients, rounds, and pages? Really? It bothered me. A lot. It reminded me of everything wrong with our hospital. Quick to ascribe the most negative human attribute to stupid actions, slow to address systemic solutions to real issues. Neglected lunch tray = Horrifying lack of consideration. Poverty, disease, despair = normal and unnoticed. 
The sign has been up for years, visibly reminding the entire patient, staff, physician community about the paucity of compassion amongst our doctors. & Yesterday it really, really, really bothered me. Today, it took the sign down. I ripped it up, recycled it. Today, BTW, I also added anew sign on our otherwise dull door. Title: "Welcome to Our Family and Community Medicine Department." Followed by big picture: prancing unicorn and falling stars. Caption: "Making the hospital fabulous since 1974!" New slogan for our department at bottom of page: "Family Medicine: where puppies and unicorns meet the street." I feel much more at home. Moral of story: when feeling run down by bureaucrats and hegemonic systemic illness, make happier signs. Preferably with unicorns. |
