May 2022 - LPNI

Three weeks ago I was admitted to hospital for surgery.  I visit patients in hospital quite regularly, but this was my first time as a patient for over 50 years.  It was a relatively short stay, but it got me thinking about the patient experience.

The word, ‘patient’, suggests a person who is prepared to wait, or who has to wait, a long time, waiting through illness and suffering for recovery and health.  A patient needs patience!  There is an element of time and waiting, but modern hospital care can be rather busy, so your time there is kept to a minimum.  So that is the not key meaning of the word, ‘patient’!

Rather the word ‘patient’ can be taken back to a Latin root word that also gives us the English passive.  You are passive when you are not doing anything, but someone is doing something to you.  That idea certainly fits a patient experience.

I was told that I was ready to be taken to theatre.  I said that I could walk.  The nurse told me very definitely that I would be wheeled on my bed.  I was a patient, passive.  Then as the anesthetist gently put me to sleep, I became totally passive, while the surgeon and team got very busy working on me.  I became an almost inanimate object.  When it was time to recover, I realized slowly what had been done to me, and how I was still dependent on nursing care for the simplest functions.  Part of the nursing care was then to help me to become active again, to get me on my feet, and after a couple days to get me on my way home.

There is a fascinating conversation between Jesus, Peter, and John right at the end of the Gospel according to John (John 21:18-19).  Jesus tells Peter:  Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.  Jesus was not just talking about Peter’s future health.  The evangelist explains: Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.  Peter’s ultimate passive experience would see him carried to his death as a crucified martyr.

I want to take a step back to reflect on our patient experiences.  Our Lord tells us, too, that there is a time when we need to be passive.  We like to be active, in control of our lives.  Our patient experiences are times when we have to let go of that control.  Going into an operating theatre, putting ourselves into the hands of the doctors, relying on the attention of the nurses is a humbling act of trust.  It is also an act of trust in the God who is the God of life.  Whatever medical treatment we receive, we are experiencing God’s gift of healing in our bodies with their amazing potential to overcome illness and injury.

At the same time we are learning that life itself in all its dimensions is a gift.  We reach the point when we cannot heal ourselves, physically or spiritually.  Jesus is the great physician.  We are the patients. We have to stop, let go of our efforts and be the patient, with the trust that when we can do nothing, our Lord does it all for our eternal welfare.

Jim Pietsch

Pastor, St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Wellington, New Zealand

jim.pietsch@lutheran.org.nz