When I was a kid in the 70’s, my favorite TV show was
Emergency. Every Saturday night, I’d
settle in with my parents and for the next hour be transfixed by the fire
department, and more importantly, the hospital.
It was then that I realized I wanted to work in a hospital. I didn’t know what, I assumed nursing,
because who wouldn’t want to be Dixie?
She was bossing those doctors around like nobody’s business. For some reason, I didn’t dream about being a
paramedic. I just wanted to be in the
hospital.
Fast forward many years and here I am. Working in a hospital. Even though my path ended up being in
pharmacy, and not nursing, I’m not sad by that. I was originally accepted at UW Madison for the nursing program,
but events beyond my control steered me in a path more local than distant. I went to UW Washington County, and we all
know how that turned out. Looking back
on it now, I’m glad I didn’t become a nurse.
I have grown more squeamish over vomiting and cutting into the
body. I’m ok with blood, that doesn’t
bother me in the least. So in a way,
there was a reason why I didn’t pursue the nursing path. I’m very happy with the pharmacy path, and if
I do have a regret, it’s that I didn’t become a pharmacist. I enjoy being a pharmacy technician
and I especially like to compound medications.
I love it. Like people love
cooking. If I was a pharmacist, I
wouldn’t really do that type of work. I
guess what I’m saying is that I’ve found what I want to do and I’m already
doing it.
I have been able to watch some reruns of Emergency in the
past few months, and as an adult, I realize this was quite the breakthrough
show for the 1970’s. It dealt with drug
use, domestic abuse, inter-racial relations, the importance of learning CPR, and
the premise of the show, paramedics in the field. There were only a handful of paramedics
across the country when this show premiered and ran for several years. It single-handedly brought to the forefront
the importance and dire need for early intervention in emergency medical care. It’s also neat, and a little sad to see, all
the businesses that have either gone by the wayside, closed, or merged into
other companies. And the vehicles. It’s definitely a walk down memory lane. But one thing that hasn’t changed and is
still universal: coffee.
As I walked to the coffee maker this morning at 6:20am,
this thought popped into my head. They
were always getting a cup of coffee on that show. Everyone.
They even had a pot at the nurse’s station that Johnny and Roy were
always getting a cup, taking one sip, and then getting a call. They dropped those cups down and took
off. We never see who cleans up after
them, but I’m guessing it wasn’t Dixie.
Same with the doctors. One sip,
and off they go. There was even a brief
segment in which Dr. Early comments to Dr. Brackett that over the course of the
day, he figures he gets one full cup of coffee in multiple sips. A new cup each time. Who is doing the dishes?
It is said that a business runs on its people. If that’s true, then the people run on
coffee. Or maybe caffeine in
general. All I know is that without my
two cups in the morning, it’s a pretty miserable start. On my days off, or when I’m not at work I
don’t really need it, but then again I don’t get up at 4am on my days off. Yeah, no one told me that working in a
hospital means there is no concept of time.
I think in military time, not “real people” time, and there are no
holidays or weekends. And even though I
have spent the last several years in college, I now know that I probably won’t
pursue a job in writing. I will stay in
pharmacy, probably where I’m at now, and be happy that I finished college, and
happy that I have a job I enjoy and actually kind of like. Not the billing part, no, but the pharmacy
part. I can see myself going back to the
in-house department full-time if the combo job I’m currently doing
changes.
I’m not sure there are that many people that can say
that, and I’ve even had a few say to me that I probably could have figured that
out without going to college. Somehow
the equating of college with a job instead of personal knowledge and
satisfaction in accomplishing something is not “worthy” to these people. They are also the ones that seek no knowledge
unless they have to. They don’t learn
for the sheer pleasure at learning something, anything.
I cannot see myself in any other field than the medical
field. I know that now. I knew this as a kid, forgot it somewhere
along the line, and realized it again by watching reruns of a 70’s TV
show. In a year, I’ll be done with school,
glad for it, and more secure in my place in life. It may have taken me seven years to get
through school at part-time, but I learned more than book smarts. I learned that liking and even loving a job
is just as important to learn and understand as getting an A in my classes and
finishing what I start or started. I may
have been able to figure that out eventually, but I really credit going to
school and facing a career change to bring the thought to the forefront of my
thinking and realization before I left the medical field and realized I had
made a mistake. I belong here. I’ve always known that and, God-willing, I
will retire from here. Just let me get a
cup of coffee before I go.
