Buckle Up - Road Trip

Do you remember the last time you worked with a young person starting out in their career?  Do you remember their excitement for their profession and the idealism they had for the work they would be doing?  Do you remember their lofty goals and dreams for their career?  I don’t.  Not only do I not remember the last time I worked with an idealistic, naïve newbie, I don’t remember being that way myself.  And I’m not that old.  I think I might have read a novel recently that had that in the story line, but nothing in real life lately. 

Maybe I’m the only person that thinks some of that is missing in all of us.  And I’m sure there are those who never lose it.  But I know that there is definitely a diminished excitement in many of us who have been working for a while.  What is it that changes in us when we hit the ground running?  I don’t think it’s just healthcare that knocks it out of people; I think maybe it’s just how it goes.  I think part of it is just having to work with people.  People are hard.  We’re imperfect.  We’re high maintenance.  I also think part of it is what happens outside work.  Life is hard.  Life is imperfect.  And often life is high maintenance.  And I think the other part of it is we aren’t naïve anymore.  We see too much hard and too much imperfect and give up on trying to maintain anything that seems to be the opposite. 

But, I want to know what other people think.  So I’ve decided to ask.  In the next number of weeks I will be asking more than a few people some questions about why they do what they do.  Maybe I will come across people who still have that idealistic feeling about their job.  Maybe I’ll be able to see where it is that someone lost some of their idealism and why.  Or maybe I will just be getting to know some incredible colleagues in the healthcare field!  I think the answers will provide us with some insights and I can’t wait to share them with you.

There is a lot of criticism out there for healthcare these days, and it’s not just in Sun Country or Saskatchewan or Canada.  Healthcare is a topic that always seems to be a lightning rod for criticism.  I think part of the reason for that are the very ideals and dreams we have for the system.  And that’s all good – it just sets up some hard questions every now and again when we aren’t able to reach them.

The questions I will be asking aren’t hard and they aren’t really idealistic.  They are an honest attempt to understand why we do what we do every day.  I hope they will provide some answers to how we can better look after the people we daily encounter, as well as give us some ideas to improve the way we go about doing that.  I’m also hoping they will give us back a little bit of that idealism we all started out with a long time ago.  I’m thinking it could be a bit of a journey for all of us.  Want to come along?