A rare thing happened in the practice yesterday. The power went down. Something happened to the lines outside and several thousand people were off the grid for the afternoon and evening.
In our building, we have an extensive group of health professionals and it was interesting to observe the behaviours that were elicited by this sudden change in the environment.
In some cases, it was a state of emergency and in others just a slight change in plans was called for. What I realised was that those who practiced an outside/in approach to healthcare could not operate under these circumstances. As soon as the power to the dentist’s drills stopped, they were incapable of performing their chosen profession – they went home. As soon as the autoclave went cool, the medical crew had to surrender to the germs – they quit too. As soon as the computer went down, the Psychiatrist could no longer give his scripts. As soon as the centrifuge ground to a halt, so too did the pathology lab’s afternoon. As soon as the naturopath’s blood analysis machines power went off, she couldn’t provide the necessary diagnosis.
Our office, on the other hand revelled in the new environment with no computers, no music and no lights.
We adjusted people late into the night, under the light generated by the practice member’s car headlights, which we had parked outside of the reception area, where we moved all our adjusting tables to.
The take home message for me is the great gift that we have in our chosen profession. We don’t add anything to the person and we don’t take anything away. All of the infrastructure of society could go down, and as long as we have our hands, we can render an amazing service to humanity.
