Bravery on your patient’s behalf

Bravery on your patient's behalf

Source: JL / The Pharmaceutical Journal

Different day, different store, same story, or so I thought as I journey to start the day

In a mist of the prescriptions, patients, staff, ringing sounds of the telephone

Rummaging through the drawers in quest of some metformin

All the while hoping for a change

Here comes a woman, face shaped with helplessness and resign

“May I speak to the pharmacist please?”

“Yes, sure, I am the pharmacist”

Guiding her towards the safety of an enclosed room

That she may speak her truth freely

I utter: “How can I help you?”

Bringing her to a flood of tears as she gasps for air to speak

Voice trembling

“I think I have overdosed on paracetamol,

“This is the second time”

Compassion flooding through my veins

Wanting to reach out, to speak life and love to her core

And then she speaks her truth, she speaks it ever so freely

As I fight back tears

Wear the sleeve of bravery on her account

Dialling 999

That she may be seen

Not just physiologically but from the inside out

That I may also look, from the inside out

Sophie Oduyale, graduate teaching assistant and part-time PhD student, University of Reading

Sophie’s piece received a special mention in our 2019 writing competition ‘The Patient Who Changed My Practice’. Read more entries here.

 

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Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, Bravery on your patient's behalf;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2019.20206920

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