BBC
Radio Leicester Thought for the Day
©
John Denney 23 March 2005
My
brother-in-law spent a couple of weeks in hospital recently. In all three of the Leicester hospitals, in
fact. On my visits I saw amazing hi-tech
machinery in action: ECG machines that also monitor your pulse and blood
pressure and beep alarmingly whenever any of the measurements are out of the
desired range; ultrasonic and CT scanners; X-ray machines; devices that
automatically administer drugs; beds that bend and tilt and go up and down at
the touch of a button; and much more besides.
Not to mention bedside television and phone units! Florence Nightingale couldn’t have begun to
imagine all this equipment.
But
she would have been able to recognise nurses who are devoted to their patients;
doctors whose medical knowledge is truly encyclopaedic; surgeons whose
techniques are incredibly skilled. She
would have been glad to see the efforts being made to get the standards of
hygiene up to the highest levels, though saddened that they had been allowed to
lapse from her own high standards. She
might well have complained about the lack of necessary pillows for patients in
some wards, such that families frequently have to bring them in for their loved
ones. I guess the sheer size and
complexity of modern hospitals leads to such deficiencies. The administrative systems aren’t foolproof.
But
it’s not the equipment and resources, amazing as they are, that impresses me
most. It’s the people. So many doctors and nurses and other staff go
way beyond the call of duty and really try to make a difference to their
patients. Often clearly overworked,
often clearly short-handed, they live up to their vocation, not merely do their
job. They are achieving what the Bible
says: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all
your might[1]. And … work with a smile
on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving
the orders, you're really serving God.[2]