Air on the side of empathy

Medical professionals see horrific things seemingly on a daily basis. Not only that, but they are often the ones charged with the job of relaying that bad news to the tear-filled eyes of their clients and their client's loved ones. One can certainly understand the temptation to "turn off the cancer channel," as Professor Lancaster put it, but in my opinion, we simply can't. Now, we can't keep this channel on every moment of every day in every room of our families home, thus impeding our ability to give our loved ones their deserved headspace, but we can't turn it off. The moment we turn this off and allow ourselves to be indifferent to the afflictions and troubles of our clients is the moment we become little more than mechanics who work in repair shops for human machines. Our empathy is what drives us to, by any means necessary, to improve or save the lives of the people that families, loved-ones, and God has entrusted in our hands. They are not just problems to fix or hours to bill. They  are people with the capacity to love and create and give something unique to the world. As clinicians we can't allow the myriad of tragedy around us to create tragedy in our own lives, but we certainly can't build a wall around our hearts and minds while outside this varied things are burning. We must air on the side of empathy.