Infermiera, figlia di una paziente. Bellissima lettera di una collega.

We received a very beautiful letter from a colleague who wants to share her experience with us. We are posting it just as we received it, without corrections or embellishments (already beautiful as it is).

I would like to talk to you about the Emergency Room in Rimini, not as a staff member, since I am a nurse who works in this company; but as the daughter of a patient.
I must say that when I took my mother there, I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing. First reason, she has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and the doctors have always told me to avoid places like the emergency room. Second reason, even after deciding to take her, I felt a sort of guilt for taking advantage of this service, maybe I could have helped my mother myself or called the on-call doctor.
Yesterday morning my mother felt so unwell that she remained sitting on the kitchen chair mumbling nonsense words and then fell out of bed in the afternoon. I am a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse, ask me anything about newborns, but don't ask me questions about adults, I feel ignorant in this field so my brain starts to imagine the worst things.
In my mother I saw the signs of a TIA (transient ischemic attack), so together with my sister and with the phone support of my brother we decided to take her to the ER. There I found a place full of people waiting and people lying on stretchers, white, yellow, green codes etc. that even just classifying them would be impossible for me. Yes, because even just classifying a code requires training.

My feeling was not to leave because of the crowd, but to look at my colleagues and enter into a sort of empathy that increased when a group of people started shouting for nothing (there aren't enough nurses, why don't you move, how are you organized, I'm calling the police, etc...). I watched the triage staff and felt a sense of peace, they understood the complaints, calmly and with a smile they explained to everyone what the priorities were...
I want to point out that they took the time to explain the reason for the long waits, never taking their eyes off the patients and those who needed it most. I realized I could trust them and that they wouldn't even judge me, they were ready to listen to everyone while part of the public was instead ready to bring them to justice in front of the authorities. This is to say that judgment often wears down the soul of those who carry it inside themselves. We must understand as a society that the Emergency Room is a place:- of waiting, linked to a healthcare system characterized by staff shortages and where, by necessity, those who are really ill have the right to go first;- of suffering in degrees where each user looks at themselves, sometimes without realizing that the person on the next stretcher is worse off than you, but is silent because they don't have the strength to speak.

All I can do is thank all the staff I met between yesterday afternoon and evening, nurses, doctors, healthcare assistants, radiology technicians, stretcher-bearers, etc... Your professionalism, competence, energy, kindness mixed with smiles made me realize that the healthcare system carried forward by these people has nothing to apologize for.
Perhaps those who should apologize are those who make cuts to Healthcare. I'll end by saying that my mother is better, she's at home and now sleeping peacefully and to make you laugh a little, while we were waiting for her to go in for her visit she said to me: 'how can I help these kids who do nothing but run around?' 'by staying calm mom, that's what they need!'
Dear colleagues, thank you for your professionalism, empathy, and patience.