During my time in hospital, I often spoke about the challenges of inpatient care — the isolation, the lack of therapeutic input, and how hospital is often a place for safety rather than healing. But what I haven’t spoken about enough are the people on the frontline: the nurses, healthcare assistants, psychologists, and doctors who show up every single day. They didn’t just keep me safe — they comforted me, supported me, and treated me with dignity at my lowest. This blog is a tribute to them — the quiet heroes doing everything they can in a system that gives them far too little to work with. Because while the system may be broken, the people on the ground are not.
I speak about hospital being a place to keep you safe and not necessarily being a place that helps you to recover. I want to make it clear the blame doesn’t fall onto the frontline staff – the blame lays with those much higher up, the people pulling the purse strings. Those on the frontline do the best they can with the little they have. They often suffer abuse at the hands of patients who are not well. They have to pick people up when they are at their very lowest. They support people who have absolutely nobody else to support them. Their job is so difficult and they still do their best to treat all patients with compassion and dignity.
During my time in hospital so many members of staff on the front line looked after me, picked me up when I was down, gave me a shoulder to cry on, spent time with me when I felt alone. These people are as much victims of the broken system as patients are. There is no way they get the credit they deserve – their job is often thankless but still they show up and they do what they can with what they’ve got.
I often spent hours talking to staff about life and sometimes not about much at all – they were there, they showed up and they treated us with respect. Some of them despite being completely rushed off their feet took the time to take us out to the garden and do other activities, knowing this would mean they would still be at work way beyond the time their shift finished. When I had bad days and couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed they would come to my room and comfort me, many times staying with me until I eventually fell asleep. When I was quiet they took the time to talk to me one to one to see what was on my mind and what they could do to help. When I was so ill that I couldn’t bring myself to shower and take care of myself they made it their job to make sure I was well looked after. At some points my hair was completely ruined because of lack of self care and they would sit and brush out all the knots and make sure it was tidy.
Honestly – the list of things they tried to do for us all was endless. They didn’t go into this profession to just keep people safe, they wanted to help and they wanted to make a difference. However, with such a heavy workload even managing to keep everyone on the ward safe was an achievement in itself.
This broken system doesn’t just affect patients – it affects every single person that is involved in the care of others as well. The change that needs to come needs to come from the top because those people working in these settings are doing all they can.
Leave a Reply