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Medical professionals have to deal with difficult ppl all the time, which is exhausting.
I work in healthcare. The amount of rude nurses I have to deal with is heart breaking. Some of them are SO ready to leave when their shift ends like they couldn’t care less what happens to that patient. Others will complain and moan about the patient calling for help. I’ve even witnessed verbal altercations between family members and nurses before. 
Having said that, some patients don’t give a crap about themselves. We try and we try and we try to help them. And yet we see them come in to the ER every month or so. Same issues. 
Some patients use nurses as their personal servants. Bring me juice, now bring me pudding, now I can’t hold my own urinal, I don’t want a bath, then complains about how the nurse didn’t even bother to bathe them. 
Some patients are abusive. Call you stupid, call you lazy, sexually harass you, grab your ass, call you pretty all while you’re trying to shave their groin area for their upcoming surgery. 
And some family members have no idea what it takes to take care of 4 different patients yet they’re the most demanding. Making a 10 minute assessment stretch into a 45 minute interrogation as to why this medicine, why that one, why haven’t you called the doctor, why hasn’t the doctor ordered such medicine, this cafeteria food is trash, does the doctor know about that cough, does he know her fever is 99.6? Does he know she is hurting? Percocet isn’t strong enough, morphine isn’t strong enough, we need stronger medication. 
Of course, we SHOULD be able to turn off the disgust, the anger, the frustration, the belittlement, we felt from one room and go into another room with a smile and a bubbly personality. Sure. But that’s a lot to ask sometimes. >

Wanting to leave after a long, hard shift seems normal to me isn't it? >

Wanting to go home, normal. Being about a whisker from walking away and throwing a fifteen year career down the toilet multiple times a week, not normal. Just common. >

It's a difficult field. You need compassion,  but also toughness.  
Start your shift and help a mean asshole recover. The asshole demeans you and complains despite your effective care. Then try to keep a sweet old lady alive, but  she doesn't make it. Then a patient argues with you about medication,  saying they don't like the way it makes them feel. You may not even be the one who prescribed it, just the one administering it. Next, you see a patient who has had a gruesome accident.  This reminds you of someone close to you. After that, you bathe a patient who is vegetative. 
Whew, you survived a shift. You can go home, but you can't fully relax.  You're on-call and see that the next shift is understaffed as you walk out the door.
Smile! >

Former ICU nurse here, now doing anesthesia. 
The amount of times I’ve been cussed out, degraded, or physically assaulted is beyond my ability to count. The public does not understand just how bad the job flat out sucks, nor how taxing it is mentally and physically. We are constantly understaffed and management only cares about metrics and checking online training boxes. I’ve had family members berate me for “sitting on my ass” as I’m trying to catch up on the insane amount of mandatory charting we have every shift. The only way I learned to manage was to disconnect a bit and do what I needed to do to provide safe and effective patient care. The compassion didn’t leave me, nor did empathy, but sometimes time management is more important for patient safety. >

This should be pinned comment and i can attest to this as a heathcare professional. Its hard to put a smile on your face when stuff like this happens behind the scenes. People just dont get that we are human too and our emotions get bottled up and start to affect our jobs to the point where you either become so callast you stop caring or you blow up. I remember being new and so caring and compassionate for the job but now its just a 9-5 job for me
Also, for anyone reading this, healthcare isnt a 5 star service. If you want 5 star service check into a resort. My only job is to make sure you dont die. >

“This should be a pinned comment” is a way of expressing one’s appreciation for a comment; the comment provides valuable insight, it should be read by everyone coming into this discussion. 
It’s a way of endorsing a comment. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the comment should literally be pinned. >

Any job that deals with the public will ruin you >

Yes, but medical professionals need to improve their attitude. I had severe anorexia in hospital, and after calling for help because my chest was in excruciating pain, they just looked at me and didn't say anything. I told them again that it felt serious and they ignored me. I passed out and I cannot remember the next whole day. I could see one of them laughing once I started having delusions due to starvation. I was also under 18 at the time. They often would be beside me when I gained and let me hit the floor, which happened several times a day. I came home still having delusion, feeling unwell and covered in bruises to a family they knew wasn't safe to be in at that moment. >

My transplant surgeon was a weird dude and his bed side manner was also odd. He did get a kick out of me saying my organ had been stolen my a crocodile. However, he is one of the top transplant surgeons in the country and he absolutely advocated for me. Would I have wanted a surgeon who was all warm and cuddly, but half as talented? Fuck no! I want the weird dude that's going to do a damn good job saving my life. >

There are certainly jerks in the medical field, just like any other field. Try to keep in mind, though, that a lot of the doctors (especially in certain specialties) who seem like they don’t care actually do care very much, it’s just that some level of emotional detachment is necessary for them to do their job well.
My brother is an ICU doctor, and he often comes across as very stoic and unemotional. In reality he has a ton of compassion for his patients and he loves caring for them, he’s just always surrounded by people who could (and often do) die at any moment, and he wouldn’t be of much help to them if he wasn’t able to keep a level head when they start crashing. >

Thank you for sharing this I can totally appreciate this - it makes a lot of sense, it must be a very hard job as well I know. And thank you to your brother for his service, the good experiences I’ve had I will remember fondly.