Caregivers have superpowers! Radical Loving Care illuminates the divine truth that caregiving is not just a job. It is Sacred Work.
Today, millions of people will go to hospitals, clinics, & doctor’s offices for care. Instead of being seen right away, they will be assigned to a particular part of the world called The Waiting Room…
Waiting Room
I wish the nurse would call me like my mother
did long ago.
“Come, here, son.” & I would
go to her & she would wrap me in her
warmth.
I wish the nurse would call my name
as if glad to see me.
I wish she would hear my fear, know
that I am human,
even some mother’s
son.
Waiting rooms, especially in hospital ERs in cities like New York, are a disgrace. Somehow, people who are sick become less than human once they walk in the door of a crowded ER and get shuffled around like cattle. I hope you will comment on this subject again since one little poem isn’t going to change much.
Maria Ramirez, CCRN
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Thanks for paying attention to the waiting room issue. Our ER hasn’t figured out how to solve this yet because the higher ups never give it any attention.
Albert Candella, EMT
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We are all waiting for someone to notice us and call our names with love and sincerity, whether we are in a waiting room of a hospital or being welcomed at church. We crave to be seen and to feel important.
Karen York
Alive Hospice, Nashville
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I wonder if the nurse or the admissions person or the doctor, who I wish would “see” me is ever “seen”? I wonder if a veneer of separation develops, similar to the veneer around people walking on the sidewalk in busy metropolitan streets – so they don’t have to be present to another strange face? So they don’t have to look except at that place on my body from where they will get the information they need – my lips as I give my name; the part of my body that is hurting; never recognizing that it could well be the hidden heart that is hurting the most – perhaps theirs is also
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I appreciate your contribution to bringing heart back to medicine. Your poety piece titled “waiting room” is remarkable.
thank you.
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Journal of Sacred Work 
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