One day, most recently, I was sitting at my desk at work eating lunch and reading an article in the Roslyn Times by Judy Epstein (A Look on the Lighter Side), “Searching for the meaning in a data-driven life.”
I have loved reading Judy’s witty, sarcastic and human approach to her thought-filled writings for the past couple of years.
Her articles hit home with me. Most of the time, I feel as if she has snatched the thoughts right out of my own mind.
Perhaps we’re soul sisters?!
Anyway, while reading her latest and greatest, she made mention of many things, but what caught my interest in particular was what she had to say about doctor’s, burn outs and checklists.
I was reminded of a recent doctor’s appointment my daughter and I had at her pediatrician’s office. Let me start by saying my son and daughter began their lives with this doctor’s office and we particularly love and respect the senior doctor who will go unnamed, so that I can continue our relationship there.
If this appointment was our 1st experience with this office I might have gone off running, but since it has been 21 years worth of experience I held tight to my seat. When the doctor came into the room he sat down in front of a new fangled contraption coming out of the wall. I felt taken back, even a little annoyed and maybe sarcastically judgmental over this wonderfully kind “look in your eyes” doctor now having to resort to face to face, in depth conversation with a computer screen and keyboard.
As his eyes searched up and down to hit the correct key in the correct box….I just sighed within as I watched my 16-year-old’s eyes roll (thinking to herself, “can we get outta here?”)
He began asking my daughter some important questions, some nonsensical, some questions which would require the same answers as the ones previously asked and some that I worried may implicate her in some way. How will doctor’s be doctors if they are not able to look into the eyes of their patients any longer? Is the medical business truly becoming a non-personal business?
Like my sister from another mister, Judy said, “If going down checklists were doctor’s main goals in life, they could become auto mechanics, and save themselves a staggering amount in student loans.”
I am so glad to have read Judy’s article this month, she made me feel that I wasn’t crazy in my feelings about people and their disconnect to humanity.
In an age of increased ways of communicating, we are simply connecting less. I witness it at work, on the street, out to dinner, in a doctor’s office and even in my own living room where my kids sit with their friends, each one with their head’s bent down, nose’s in their phone’s.
I would like you to look at me, witness my expression, see my eyes, my smile or my frown. I want you to hold my hand when I’m either celebrating or defeated. I want to be a part of an environment where people truly care for the human side of life and not a test score or a checklist, don’t you?
L.A. Mazzara
East Norwich
