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- Apr 5, 2009
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I've been working at my local hospital as an attendant (or perhaps also called orderly) for about two and a half years now. I basically roam around the hospital and do miscellaneous things, but two of our main responsiblities are picking up the dead bodies off the floor to the morgue and performing chest compressions during the codes. I mention the former, because at no point has dead people given me nightmares or freaked me out in any form or fashion.
Moving on to my point...
When I go to codes, the way people act is just terrible. People almost ALWAYS crack jokes, make funny faces when something "gross" is present on the person's body, watch television, poke at the in inappropriate ways, make absurdly rude comments at the obese, etc etc. It's also not uncommon for people to mention they're getting bored/hungry and wish the process would speed itself up.
I consider myself an extremely serious minded person with little to no sense of humor, so maybe that's why this all doesn't sit well with me. I just keep thinking that this is a human being, despite the situation and we should be treating them with some sort of professional respect. I'd just like some insight to how this sounds to someone who's never seen such a thing and especially from those who have seen it way too many times.
When I've had conversations in the past with members of the hospital typically these are the things I hear:
-This is people's way to cope with the mental stress of another human being dying.
-Seeing too many "slow code" situations and/or instances where you want the person to die (physician was unable to convince the family/patient to elect DNR status) makes a person increasingly desensitized.
-If you have fun with it, you'll do a better job. (bull****)
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My apologies if this has been discussed earlier. I've been reading this forum for quite some time and have yet to see anything like this brought up. Not a troll post I swear =).
Moving on to my point...
When I go to codes, the way people act is just terrible. People almost ALWAYS crack jokes, make funny faces when something "gross" is present on the person's body, watch television, poke at the in inappropriate ways, make absurdly rude comments at the obese, etc etc. It's also not uncommon for people to mention they're getting bored/hungry and wish the process would speed itself up.
I consider myself an extremely serious minded person with little to no sense of humor, so maybe that's why this all doesn't sit well with me. I just keep thinking that this is a human being, despite the situation and we should be treating them with some sort of professional respect. I'd just like some insight to how this sounds to someone who's never seen such a thing and especially from those who have seen it way too many times.
When I've had conversations in the past with members of the hospital typically these are the things I hear:
-This is people's way to cope with the mental stress of another human being dying.
-Seeing too many "slow code" situations and/or instances where you want the person to die (physician was unable to convince the family/patient to elect DNR status) makes a person increasingly desensitized.
-If you have fun with it, you'll do a better job. (bull****)
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My apologies if this has been discussed earlier. I've been reading this forum for quite some time and have yet to see anything like this brought up. Not a troll post I swear =).