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April 30, 2013

From This Chair—The Color of Healthcare

ChairAs I write this, I am sitting in a visitor chair at a local hospital. I have been in this chair, and many like it, off and on for six months. From this chair, I have had the opportunity to see healthcare in all its personalities.

From this chair, I have observed nurses in action. They are young and old, male and female, and mostly Blue.

If you have a loved one who is sick, having a Blue take care of them is a true gift and these nurses have my complete and total admiration. They have the natural gifts of empathy, compassion, sincerity, and strong sense of purpose.

When a nurse asks a patient how he feels, she actually wants to know. Not only does she want to know, she feels his pain.

They do anything within their power to relieve the patient’s discomfort. They know a patient suffers from the indignities of having to use bedpans, receive sponge baths, and having total reliance on someone else. Nurses are quick to reassure the patient that they are not alone.

They don’t forget. You might have been in and out of the hospital—sometimes months between visits—and yet they remember you with comments like “Hey, where’s your Green Bay Packer t-shirt?” just as though you’d been there yesterday.

From this chair I have seen doctors come and go.

When a doctor asks you how you feel, they aren’t really interested in how you feel feel. They want to know signs and symptoms. They view your health as a personal challenge. They read test results as avidly as an investor reads the Dow. Their visits never last more than a few minutes in which they provide you with snippets of their wisdom, and then breeze out again. Still, after they are gone, you feel that you are in good hands. They have confidently accessed, decided, and delegated.

To call them all Reds may be inaccurate. Many show signs of other colors—the quiet dignity of a White, the compassion of a Blue, or the sense of humor of a Yellow—but I can’t help but wonder if in medical school they don’t have a class called Red 101, that provides them with the filters of logical tenacity and pragmatism.

From this chair, I watch as dozens of people sit together in a large room and are infused with chemotherapy. Again, most of the healthcare providers are Blue.

One exception is a young man who is Yellow and beloved. Every patient hopes he will have this young man for his transfusion. He is efficient and dedicated, but that is not why he is so popular. He regales his patients with stories, sings show tunes, and remembers the names of grandchildren. He is eternally optimistic and celebrates every little victory his patients achieve. If a patient experiences a set-back, he shrugs his shoulders and says, “that’s OK” and you believe him. When asked how he came to be a nurse he said that a really cute girl asked him to volunteer at a convalescent home. He did and loved it. She didn’t work out, but from that experience, decided to become a nurse. Only a Yellow would make a career choice because of a crush.

From this chair, I reflect that I do not have the personality to be a healthcare professional. As a Red, I appear not to care. I am not a fawner. I am tempted to tell the patient to quit bellyaching and look at the incredible opportunities modern medicine provides. I often grow impatient sitting in these chairs.  But the truth is, I do care and I am filled with gratitude for all of these people who have chosen the career they have and for whom I have observed from this chair.

 

Teresa Glenn has been working with the Color Code since 2006, where her main focus is product development. She has been in the publishing and product development field for over 20 years. Teresa is a core Red with a strong Yellow secondary.