If helping professionals won’t help 24/7, do they need new careers?
Dear Carolyn: 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.
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.
When one feels “called,” one is never truly “off-duty.”
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? — Kentucky
Dear Kentucky: 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.