Humaneness

She was given the graveyard shift for consecutive three weeks, just because she had answered him back. A kind of punishment she took in her stride. In her assessment, she had done right when her elderly patient requested her to sing. "How outrageous of you to pander to the whims of a patient", the doctor in charge has criticized.  

Patricia felt humiliated and said "Sir, how could I have refused her this small request? She reminded me so much of my mother, who similarly always asked me to sing to her." In response, he barked at her.

"Haven't you been taught in nursing school never to get personal with your patients?"

Endowed with a nightingale's voice, many of her patients wanted her to spend a few moments singing to them. It was more healing than all the pills she gave them. Once she was assigned to the children's cancer ward in another hospital and regularly sang for them, and found that the children seemed to respond well.  

Making the night rounds was tiring but she was determined to prove to the doctor in charge that beyond nursing, there was something called humaneness, which he lacked.  

That Christmas Eve she went into the geriatric ward and on-demand and sang all the Christmas carols. Some patients joined in the singing, which could be heard by the doctors and nurses on the night shift. The euphoria was contagious.  

Then she did what no other nurse would have dared to do, by distributing candies to them, even to the diabetic ones. "Don't go overboard on that" she cautioned with a smile on her angelic face. To her misfortune, she was caught and sacked. 

The new nurse who replaced her was the opposite of Patricia. Stern-faced, with not-so-kind bedside manners, went towards making many patients unhappy. Some complained some passed away, and some even shifted to other hospitals.  

The Director of the hospital tried contacting Patricia at her last known address. He enquired with her neighbors and was told they had no knowledge of her whereabouts.  

Patricia, they learned later had committed suicide, unable to take the unfairness of what has happened.  

The doctor lived with this guilt on his mind and changed for the better, never again pulling up the nursing staff for their acts of kindness