First principles

As an intern I thought that ill patients took precedence over everything: meetings, eating, sleep… because what could be more important? I mean ill patients, not dying patients. Most patients in hospital don’t die and those who do are usually not unexpected or avoidable deaths. Some may argue this as a self-esteem issue, but I think it was no more than a wrong-priority issue.

 

As a first year SHO I learnt that my learning took precedence and I wasn’t entirely comfortable with that. I understood that doing the wrong things was worse than not doing anything, but not-doing just did not feel right.

 

Now I know and understand that Hazards-Hello-Help is the right and necessary order, but I don’t always remember or apply it: and my failure is not machismo.

 

I know that balance is important and that First Principles are FIRST: first things first: only a fool insists on tying his shoelaces in a fiercely burning building. Having said that, stress narrows our cognitive focus acutely so that we cannot remember things we know very well.

 

This post is because of the reason I left work late this morning, at 0h35, and walked home in the rain. It was quite pretty.