While visiting a Hospital in Mexico, a local blogger saw a doctor sleeping at her desk. It was 3 in the morning. He took a photograph and later posted it online, criticizing the doctor for not doing her job and making her patients wait. But he didn’t anticipate how people would react to the photo.
He wrote: A doctor had fallen asleep at her desk at the hospital.” Soon after, another Mexican doctor posted a picture of himself sleeping in his scrubs with the caption, “I also fell asleep.” Within hours, doctors worldwide shared similar photos.
Most people don’t realize that doctors and nurses often work 36-hour shifts at hospitals and work some 80 hours per week without earning overtime. Many hospital doctors have never known an 8-hour workday.
Let’s face it, who can be expected to work for over 24 hours straight and still do a good job? I think it’s completely human that they’d curl up and catch some shuteye wherever and whenever they can, especially when the work is so intense and important – a few minutes rest is really vital.
Doctors around the world have shown their solidarity by posting photos of themselves napping on the job.
Sure it doesn’t look cozy, but they’re probably just glad if they can close their eyes for a few minutes.
Some doctors have adopted that as their battle cry, “We’re humans, not machines!”
Sleep deprivation can lead to mistakes and that means more lives could be lost.
On average, a single operation can last for more than 4 hours with no breaks. The doctors have to remain extremely focused throughout the whole thing – they are humans after all and need rest!
If you’re like me, you’d prefer a doctor who is alert enough to know whether I’m the one getting a physical or a heart transplant.
It makes you wonder: Why are doctors are expected to work such long shifts in the first place? If there were more employees working in hospitals, they might be able to solve this problem.
Maybe this man should’ve thought a bit more before jumping to conclusions and judging someone else’s behavior. Oftentimes, if we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, we’d realize that we’d probably do the exact same thing.
Please SHARE to thank all the doctors out there who stay awake despite their crazy hours just to take care of us!
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