Working in Healthcare can be very rewarding. It offers many benefits and opportunities for personal growth but it’s also one of the most responsible and stressful industries. Some nurses argue that “stressful” isn’t powerful enough word for the job and it turns to be much more difficult when people don’t realise or appreciate how chaotic working in this fast paced industry can be.

There are several things healthcare professionals wish you knew before entering the hospital.

1) We have little or completely no control over waiting time
There’s honestly no reason to get hateful with healthcare staff over wait times cause they’ve very little or no control over it. They all understand how frustrating it is to show up for an appointment and then having to sit and wait for hours to be seen, but there’s only so much that can be controlled. Nobody can be kicked out from their appointment before it’s over just so you don’t have to wait too long. Some patients can be critically ill or injured and need to be seen first. Also diagnosing a medical condition can take longer, especially when the emergency physician is ruling out life-threatening conditions.

2) We are constantly overworked and understaffed, so please bear with us
Slow days in healthcare don’t exist. Sleepless nights, long shifts, crowded waiting rooms, abuse from frustrated patients, and no time for proper meals is often a reality in the health sector. Healthcare staff always smiles and talks softly because it is part of their job but that doesn’t really mean they aren’t stressed and that you shouldn’t be polite to them. So the next time when you go to a doctor’s appointment, or enter a hospital make sure you respect and appreciate all the hard work they do.

3) We know when you’re lying so please don’t do it
Don’t tell the nurse you’re following Doctor’s orders and taking your medication on time when you clearly aren’t. She’s going to find out anyway. It makes it so much harder to help you if you’re not honest.

4) We hate paper work too, but it is important to keep your health record up to date
It is very difficult to effectively treat you during or after hospital stay without any up-to date medical information or any medical history of your previous illness. Paper work is time consuming and neither medical staff nor patients like doing it but it is necessary and helps to work out what treatment is most suitable.

5) We really do care but we can’t be super sensitive
Healthcare is a character building job and it develops a necessary toughness. It would be very hard to work in this if the medical staff was overly sensitive. The people they treat are usually very sick, injured or about to say goodbye. People die and the healthcare staff can’t let themselves to be too sad about it for too long – simply because it will happen again and again and they need to be emotionally prepared for that inevitability.