The ethic of service with a smile

Nursing is no mere profession. It is a vocation and a vocation is a high calling in life. These words by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to some nursing recruits recently, capture the essence of what serving the public really means. ‘A smiling nurse and kind care could go a long way in giving strength to an ailing patient in his or her endeavour to recover from an illness’, the President told the recruits at their passing-out function.

What the President told the nurses is equally applicable to medical doctors and other professionals who come into close contact with the people and whose concern should be the people. That is, people should be handled with immense care and in the case of doctors and nurses this point could not be emphasized enough because the experience of most patients is that warmly smiling and cheerful medical personnel tend to bring them immediate relief almost.

It would be highly unfair to make sweeping generalizations in these matters because many are the medical personnel who are not only cordial towards their patients but are also selflessly committed to their well being. However, this description does not fit all the doctors and nurses the public comes across and the problem could be compounded by the fact that many state sector medical personnel are not conscience-stricken when it comes to wielding the strike-weapon.

There was a time and age when a patient could go to his family physician with the expectation of not only being cared for with a smile and warm friendliness but with the hope, which was not usually disappointed, of having unlimited humanity bestowed on him by his doctor. Such doctors are a dying breed today, but this is the ideal doctor the poor of this land in particular wish for when they visit state hospitals. Provide the public this ideal service, we urge our medical personnel.

Of course, economic necessity takes its toll. One cannot expect the majority of medical personnel to be happy with their lot when living costs rise relentlessly and some of their legitimate concerns go unaddressed. But the more strike-prone medical personnel need to consider the time-honoured principle that the end does not always justify the means. We are for having a highly contented medical profession at the service of the people but this does not justify state doctors and nurses in resorting to strike action to redress their grievances.

The preferred course of action is to engage the state medical authorities in a dialogue in resolving issues.

Besides, doctors and nurses in particular need to consider that they are not engaged in mere professions and jobs but in vocations. The latter are value-based activities that are driven by the zeal to serve humanity. If personnel such as doctors and nurses are continuing to command the respect of the public, it is because the people do not see them as just any other category of worker. The doctor, for them, for instance, is a special person with a special calling and for this reason is expected to be exemplary in every aspect of his or her life.

The same goes for nurses and other categories of medical personnel. For the general public, these persons are of crucial importance because they deliver the people from torment and suffering and in very many instances deliver them from the jaws of death. Accordingly, they are seen as exceptional persons and are to that extent revered by the people.

Therefore, medical personnel in particular should ensure that they do not ‘fall from grace’ in the eyes of the public.

They are looked up to and respected by the public and need to bear this in mind. For them, service with a smile is inescapable and they need to ensure that these smiles are spontaneous. They cannot afford to go the way other workers usually do.

Medical personnel must create value and not be seen as the creators of a culture of death. Let them not be cynical about their work on earth. This is the hope of the silent majority.