Should helping professionals be available to help 24/7?
The subject of the off-duty veterinarian left me particularly unnerved and disappointed.
I was raised as a preacher’s son. My parents instilled in me and my three brothers a desire to serve others regardless of the task. They lived a life of service and, as a result, a life of joy, love and contentment.
I am an optometrist. I have NEVER turned down an opportunity to answer a sincere question from anyone at any time of day, week or year. My partner and I have provided 24/7 emergency eye care when needed and have seen patients in the middle of the night or on Christmas Day when necessary. We provide our personal cellphone numbers to anyone who asks. I want them to call, and it is never a bother!
Any profession or employment can be just a way to make a living. As such, we tend to draw a line to avoid doing anything that does not fit neatly into the job description. Ideally, though, any job can become a calling. With a calling comes a higher, more fulfilling purpose than simply getting a paycheck. Ironically, the “called” tend to make more money, even though worldly success is not the prime motivating factor.
When one feels “called,” one is never truly “off-duty.” On vacation with my wife and daughters, I noticed a woman at a rest stop with one hand over her eye. She felt like something flew into her eye, and she was in pain. I had one of my daughters find a Q-tip, and I was able to remove the foreign body right there in the rest area. I was on vacation! I did not have to get involved. But to me, it is inhumane, insensitive and selfish not to.
My message to the vet is that if you cannot see your job as helping others at any time and place, then find a new career. To the physician, shame on you.
Why would you want to do less? Is this the callous world we now live in?
This is the world we’ve always lived in; it’s not callous to have limits, though we were all admittedly too flippant about them in the column; and no no nooooo, do not urge perfectly good veterinarians and doctors to quit!
Just because your limits and theirs are different doesn’t mean theirs aren’t appropriate. I’d be saying this even if there were enough people doing these jobs. As it happens, though, many helping professions have significant shortages. Vets, doctors, their assistants, other care workers — and, since you brought them up, clergy. And teachers, another caregiving profession. I could go on. We need more of them whether they’re “called” or just skilled and responsible. “Just,” I should say — air quotes — since I don’t see that as a bad thing. These jobs need doing by people who are committed and trained to do them. And rested, mentally as much as physically. Otherwise, mistakes happen.
One reason for shortages is that we’re grinding our skilled helpers to a nub: burying them in debt just for a chance to tend to our needs, then burying them in our needs, tied in a bow of red tape. Don’t add impossibly high expectations, please.
If we won’t address their costs and caseloads, then at least we can think twice before accosting them in the buffet line — and take “call me Monday” for an answer.
No one is suggesting people buzz right off with their actual emergencies, at rest stops or anywhere else.