A Person First

Before anything else, we are a person first. Before we are a teacher, lawyer, doctor or any other profession. On Friday, I received a call from one of my doctors saying that a close friend of hers had died. She was distraught. She was sobbing and asked me if she could go home. She was scheduled for a few patients that day but was so upset she did not think that she could sit with them without crying. I told her to try to have another doctor fill in for her and if not just tell the patients that she was sorry for the inconvenience. She did that and the patients understood. Later that day, I received another call from that doctor telling me that our director contacted her to say that she was angry that the patients were cancelled. The doctor felt even worse now. I consoled her by saying that what she did was correct. If she could not be effective in giving therapy that day, what was the sense of having a session? I reminded her that before she was a doctor, she was a person and that always comes first.