What It Costs to Care

One guilty pleasure that Matt and I have is to sit down with a good medical drama TV show. Grey's Anatomy, Nurse Jackie, House, The Resident. Neither of us has ever worked in a hospital (though - fun fact - Matt went to mortuary school). I don't know the first thing about treating physical ailments apart from general first aid. But when you sit down for an hour or 2 (or binge a whole season - no judgement here), you start to pick up on specifics. Yes, medical dramas are often subject to the magic of film writers and producers, but they do tend to be rooted in real practice. For example, BokHee, played by real-life nurse Kathy C. An, has been a regular on Grey's Anatomy throughout it's 22 seasons, adding a sense of legitimacy to the work that the actors are trying to portray.

This week, however, I'd like to talk about one show in particular that caught my attention this past week - The Pitt. One season covers a single 15 hour shift in a chaotic Pittsburg Emergency Room, with each episode covering a single hour of the shift. It's like ER meets 24. The show has been praised for its high fidelity to real life emergency room care - though with every medical television drama, liberties are taken to support the overall theme and narrative. Dr. Robinavitch or "Dr. Robby" is the attending physician at a teaching hospital who manages an incredibly intense workload of cases in an understaffed Emergency Room. He has the complex job of managing medical residents, interns, and nursing staff. He is under the pressure of hospital administration to focus on patient satisfaction - a seemingly impossible task with nursing shortages and deficient support. His day is a 15 hour revolving door of trauma cases, psychiatric episodes, tragic deaths, and frustrated patients who have been waiting hours to see a physician. And, for season one, all takes place on the anniversary of his mentor's death during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's intense and has mature language and themes, but it's unapologetically raw and real.

One of the things I really appreciated about the show is how it portrayed medical professionals doing incredibly hard work. Every character is dealing with their own struggle. They have their flaws, their egos, their struggles. While medical professionals do incredible and heroic work, The Pitt does an incredible job preserving their humanity. These are ordinary people doing extraordinary work. They lose their tempers, they struggle with addiction. It's a complex environment with complex people. As the first shift season progresses, you can sense that Dr. Robby's mental state is showing cracks.

If you've ever traveled by plane, you probably know the spiel that the flight attendants give before take off. If there's a sudden drop in pressure, oxygen masks are supposed to drop down to help passengers breathe. But what are you supposed to do if you are traveling with children who cannot put on their own masks? You should put yours on first! When it comes to caregiving, the same rule applies. If you cannot take care of yourself, how can you effectively take care of others? And that's not necessarily a criticism. Sometimes, we are in situations where we have no choice. Single moms or sole caregivers - if we stop, then disaster seems sure to follow.

But here's the thing - compassion for one another is kind of obligatory for the disciple of Jesus. In Matthew 5, Jesus talks about how we are to love and serve one another in the famous Sermon on the Mount. And much of it feels like inconveniencing ourselves for the sake of the other. Or even worse, enduring abuse as a show of compassion and love. The problem with that approach is that we ignore the reality that we are just as much deserving of compassion and care as our neighbor. We are just as much a part of creation as our neighbor. We bear just as much of our Creator's image as anyone else. And to allow harm or abuse to happen to us is to allow it to happen to God's creation. Choosing to love and care for others should not rob us of our own precious humanity and the needs that we have as people. And choosing to endure injustice and indignity without recourse or call to repentance hinders the saving and renewing work of God.

It costs to care. It costs us deeply to be there for others, especially when we need the help and presence of others, too. In Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, he writes, "Sin wants to be alone with us. It takes us away from the community... the more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin." And this isn't merely about our own selfish or harmful actions. Sin, I think in this context, means more. Brokenness, isolation, burn out, complacency. Sin is not merely the way we rebel against God or bring harm to our neighbor, but sin is a destructive force - an illness, if you will - that wants to undo the work of a compassionate God. When we show up for one other, when we take the time to receive care in addition to providing it, our world reflects a little more brightly the vision of the Kingdom of God.

Show: The Pitt

Where to watch it: HBO Max

Peace!

-PT