About 25 years ago I started work at our local hospital and was soon to meet a certain old Dr who “did my head in!!!” I thought he was old; he still called nurses ‘Sister’ and he thought I was a young upstart!! I worked my way up in the hospital and he became what I thought of as ‘a thorn in my side’. Probably after 10 years or so when I realised that neither of us were going anywhere I made a consious decision to stop fighting the thorn and instead embrace it. By this stage I held a senior nursing position; our relationship changed or should I say I changed because looking back he was really no different. As I matured and accepted the way things were we developed a quiet professional respect for each other. Out of all the Drs he was the one who I knew would back me up no matter what; he was the only Dr to ever apologise to me & he trusted my professional judgement.
Last week Dr ‘Thorn’ died in his sleep. The last thing he said to me was ” I’m buggered Sister!”
Out of all the nurses I was the one who cried at his funeral .
In hindsite I suppose concerntrating on a ‘thorn’ stops you from enjoying the beauty of a rose!!
RIP Doc xxxx
