The NHS is everything, from life to death.
From the joy of a new life, bursting into a family. The first birth or 'another birth' each one is precious and different. Life will never be the same.
The end of life, expected, unexpected, it makes no difference. For those left behind, life will never be the same.
Sometimes fate gets it wrong, there is a misalignment of the stars, happenstance and a birth can be a tragedy and a death a joy. That's the conundrum of life and the mystery of its purpose.
Why me, why us...
It's what the NHS does. Why it's there. Everything from life to death. The highs and the lows. The joys and the joyless. But, that phrase; from life to death, is incomplete. There is more to add to it.
What we should say is; The NHS is from life to death... and everything in between.
The 'in between'; the complexity, the moral and ethical dilemmas, the rationale to put behind the use of resources, the choices, the stress, the pressures.
The everyday becomes the 'in between'; the routine, the workaday that is the bread and butter of the NHS but for the individuals, their families, relatives, carers and friends, for each of them, it is a unique experience.
For us it will be the umpteenth.
The joint replacement register tells us just short of 243,000 replacement surgeries were carried out 2016/7. Tell me, those kind of numbers don't invite us to think, 'routine hip'.
In the same year 679,106 births. There were 15.4 million, Type1, A&E attendances. Tell me the 'another one' mind-set doesn't creep in.
Routine, can be the enemy of quality. Predictability, invites us to make assumptions... make mistakes.
Routine can destroy the patient-experience. From the patient point of view there is no routine experience. It is their one-time experience, full of the tensions, anxieties and worries that the unknown brings.
How can we avoid the curse of routine?
Four things
Remind yourself, why. Why do you do the job? To pay the bills, of course. I think there are few people working in the NHS that couldn't get paid better, working outside the NHS. It's not just the money, is it?
There is something special about being part of an organisation that only exists to make people's lives better.
Knowing the person you are planning healthcare for, creating and maintaining the environment for, being part of the face-to-face team for... could be a stranger or just as easily someone like a relative, a friend or a person who lives in your community.
Knowing that makes every encounter special for everyone involved.
That is far from routine.
Reflect on the day. I know, when the shift is over, when the last meeting ends, when you are sitting in the car park, or on the train, you'll want to get going. Go home, pick the kids up, whatever... but give yourself permission to pause and reflect on the day.
Think about what you've accomplished, the part you have played in the lives of the people you have met.
That is far from routine.
Think about the people you have worked with. Their common purpose to make one pound do the work of two, the team that works in A&E, on the wards. The jokes you share, the black-humour that is so much part of lightening the load.
That is far from routine.
Focus on your successes, concentrate on the people. Think about the messages they have taken home. What they've said about meeting you. Each one will have a story about you. The news you have given them, the decisions you have made, how it might define their future and what comes next for their families.
For so many you have met, planned for, created for... life will never be the same.
It's Ok to be proud of what you do.
That is far from routine.
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