This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hi, I'm Sarah Chick, COT, OCT-C. I'm a certified ophthalmic technician and education coordinator in Austin, Texas. I want to talk today about teaching compassionate care. It seems really intuitive: We join the medical field because we care about people and we want to care for people, but feeling care and practicing care can be different sometimes.
I remember early in my career, the first patient who was really rude to me really caught me off guard. Eventually, I excused myself, and the doctor did the exam, and he sent me in to reschedule the patient for their next visit. And at that point, the patient surprised me because he said, "I'm so sorry for the way I spoke to you. My wife just died a few days ago." That moment has stuck with me for my entire career because it showed me that I may not know why a patient is rude or why they don't know what medications they take or why they are slow getting around or why they've missed their last 3 appointments.
Some of these things can be inconvenient or difficult but often pale in comparison to what the patient is having to overcome to take care of their sight. So I like to share this experience with my technicians who are new to the field and allow them to understand that there's often much more than what we see on the surface. Having an attitude with the patient doesn't help the patient, and it doesn't get the job done. But if we can be patient and if we can express compassion for them, we end up getting the job done and allowing space for the patient to feel cared for and want to come back and continue getting care for the sake of their sight.
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