It is never a good thing to try and shame someone, even less so when you use the unpredictable world of the internet to humiliate anyone publicly, as you can never tell what it will do with things that people post.
“We are aware that this is a tiring job but doctors are obliged to do their work. There are dozens of patients in need of attention,” wrote the blogger, according to media reports.
But that idea backfired when the post went viral, with hundreds of residents and doctors posting their own #YoTambienMiDormi (Spanish for “I’ve also fallen asleep”) pictures.
The best part of this social media story is that the internet’s reaction was not to shame the young medical student but to stand in solidarity. Many doctors posted their own images or colleagues sleeping at work.
The photo captions noted that some of the doctors were caught taking the “power naps” right after operating on two to three patients on a regular shift. Some were fast asleep after working non-stop for 24 hours or longer.
It is not easy to become a doctor.
Aside from the grueling requirements in both college and medical school, most students have to complete a multi-year residency at a hospital before being board certified as a doctor; this includes working many hours a day doing various tasks and also studying for a certification exam as well.
Some residents can work up to a 36-hour shift, and many attending doctors can work over 80 hours a week.
Doctors like anyone else have to rest to work at their best. And when you are so busy working multiple shifts and cannot get home, a quick cat-nap can make all the difference in a person’s ability to do their best.
The social media users’ positive response reminds us of the very fact that “doctors are humans and not machines,” something that many of us easily overlook during trying circumstances.
