Patience and Compassion

In part of my comany's mission statement it mentions "compassion", competency, etc. One of the reasons I am drawn to my profession is the opportunity to cultivate compassion for those I work with/serve. I have had some difficult patients lately and Friday I wanted to throw my hands up in the air and start my weekend early. I had three patients in the span of a week (with two of the the three encounters happening on Friday) get mad at me in a very child-like and irrational manner. I can be patient. I can be compassionate. It is easiest in small doses. During the last encounter, I had to take myself out of the treatment session and go sit in a small corner and take some deep breaths. While trying to have a grown-up/adult conversation with a patient who accused me of patronizing her I was unable to collect myself in the moment. This little breather/break was good for me. I believe in my company's mission statement and I want to offer the utmost compassion to every single patient, but at that moment, it was extremely hard. I think it takes moments like this (challenging patients who test our patience and compassion) to remind us of developing that patient rapport, trying to understand their narrative or life story, and why perhaps they are so upset or irrational. I have to remind myself that most of the time there is an underlying problem and to not take their behavior towards me personally. I have to think of them individually and what they are going through. This will help me to have introspection as to how to be more sensitive and delicate when working with these types of patients. I can usually do this, however, this particular Friday was just a bit too much for me. Thank goodness for the weekend and a fresh start on Monday.