KMG-365

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.