are we crazy?

Its 10 am. The fire alarms are going off (being tested). You know how loud they are in a hospital. The guy who uses that big loud machine to clean the floors is currently doing his thing. The monitors are going off. The patient call lights are going off. The phone is ringing.

In the middle of all this I ask myself: are we all insane? Is the ability to work in an environment that would send most people running for the door normal? I don't think it is. The fact that it is like this and yet we continue to keep doing it, makes me wonder about myself. Why would I put myself through this? And I have been doing this for years.

A lot of ER folks like to tell themselves that they are pretty special, pretty great, because they can function in this chaotic, loud, stressful environment. We get off on that fact. But are we special, are we pretty great because we can function in this chaos, dealing with all of these dysfuncitonal people?

Hey I know somebodys got to do it. Thank goodness there are people who will do it. But sometimes I wonder why I would choose to work in a situation like this. A chaotic, stressful, sometimes abusive environment in a place that places expectations that people are unable to fulfill. A nurse who left the ER once told me that she thought working there was self abuse. Hmmmmmm... any thoughts?