“Coping”
What does “the health system is coping” mean Mr Perrotet? To me, at work coping means that I’m only just doing okay. I’m managing, barely, to do the minimum I expect of myself to be able to say I’ve done an adequate job. For a colleague to ask me if I’m OK, am I “coping”, then I’m probably showing signs of stress. Being able to cope means I’m drawing on inner reserves of resilience and fortitude and ego. But not just mine, but my colleagues’, my shift mates’, my team-leader’s. Am I making it harder for them to cope. I’m glad I can cope. Should I be forced to cope? No. Someone coping is someone close to breaking. If I’m not coping I might not give a medication on time, or attend to oral care as often is best-practice, or not get observations down on the hour, or any other myriad minor tasks that make up ICU nursing, but still, not doing them eats away at my self esteem, and it’s not what the patient deserves. Or, for example only, I might not notice that a vasopressor infusion is about to run out, there’s no spare and the patient’s blood pressure drops and they go into cardiac arrest and die. Being in a state of “coping” on a personal level doesn’t feel great. An entire health service “coping” can’t be good.