Having worked in various roles in healthcare since 2009, I’ve been exposed to all sorts of interesting people and situations. With patients and families you’re often seeing them during the darkest and most difficult times in their life. If you’re lucky, you might see them on the happiest days of their life as they welcome a new baby into the world or get to ring the bell marking the end of chemo or radiation. There are tons of books, movies, podcasts, and TV shows that describe these moments that patients and families experience. But there are other characters and events within those stories that are not the centerpiece of the story.
Sometimes these characters play roles that are small or seemingly insignificant. Other times these characters may play a significant role that may or may not be totally understood or realized at the time. There are also interactions behind the scenes that patients and families don’t see or know about that actually play a significant role in their stories. For example, you don’t always see the interactions between providers that occur behind closed doors. Those interactions can change the whole course of someone’s story and the patient will never know about it.
Healthcare is such a complex and carefully orchestrated symphony that sometimes is beautiful and sometimes is catastrophic. If you continue with me as viewing healthcare as a symphony I promise it will make more sense.
When you think of a musical performance, the songs are not always the same. Throughout a performance, songs change in both subtle and drastic ways and portray many different feelings. But the way one person hears the performance may evoke different thoughts and feelings than the person sitting right next to them. On a performance level, some musicians work very well together and others do not.
Healthcare is similar to a symphony. It has different instruments and musicians that work together to create a performance. You need the right tools and right people to make the best outcome for the patient. Most of the time in healthcare, they work together seamlessly to create a beautiful outcome. But not always, sometimes there are clashes which bringing in mood and drama into the symphony. Healthcare providers are often like musicians – they can be loved, hated, misunderstood, and unappreciated.
I’ve been part of the symphony as a nurse and nurse practitioner. With Dustin, I was now a patron observing the symphony from the outside. It was an interesting perspective to say the least. I’m guessing it would be similar to a chef watching another chef create their meal and then eating it. You know how things should and shouldn’t be done. You may love the taste of the food prepared for you. It might even be inedible.
You already know how Dustin’s story ends. He’s dead. But I never let Dustin go to the symphony alone. I was always with him for the whole performance. We definitely had different interpretations of the performance. I’m incredibly grateful we could share it together.
There were a lot of people in Dustin’s symphony. Some of them were great some of them were terrible and needed to be kicked out of the band. The whole performance was complex and beautiful but also had moments where songs were moody, out of tune, and just unpleasant. But I didn’t shy away from the bad parts. I sat through those shitty songs with Dustin.
Beside you in time 