THE GREATEST JOB IN THE WORLD

A wise elder once said that the greatest job in the world is to become a servant to everyone around you. It is also the easiest job in the world to get. You don’t have to have any qualifications, you do not need to fight an election, you do not have to go through any job interviews. All you need to have is the willingness and motivation to help everyone in need around you and relive their distress, to the best of your ability and capacity.

We human beings often underestimate how much human contact affects us, both positively and negatively. I was reminded of the above by a very strange but also very moving experience. I kept thinking whether it would be appropriate to share it, but then thought it may help some people down the line.

I saw a patient some time ago who was so mentally unwell that he had not sat down for several days. Our colleagues were afraid to approach him because of his unpredictability and potential of suddenly lashing out. So, he was just left standing, staring out the window. I would see him with several colleagues present for safety reasons but couldn’t get much communication going. He wouldn’t sleep and wouldn’t even sit down despite heavy doses of medications. We were getting worried about the physical health consequences of someone standing on their feet for days on end.

One day, seeing him standing like this and mumbling incoherently, my heart just broke. I sat on his bed and told him to come and sit with me. To my shock, after a few moments he did. Staff were worried about safety but I asked them to stay back. We then had the strangest conversation I had ever had. He wrote his name on a piece of paper and I wrote mine. I sat there with him on his bed for the next 30 minutes. He kept talking incoherently of which I could understand only about 5 percent. He never once became aggressive and just kept talking. He happily allowed the junior doctor to take his blood sample and accepted oral medications, both the things that he had been refusing previously. When about half an hour later I tried to say that I had to go as I had to see other patients, he refused to shake my hand to say goodbye, and gestured that he wanted me to keep sitting. I promised to return later to sit with him and I did.

The staff later told me that that day he remained relatively calmer though he received exactly the same medications. This made me think very seriously how we often underestimate the impact and influence we have on those around us. And that to help those around we don’t often need to be a superhero, we just need to be there.