When Jay was in the ED, I could see him in the eyes of each patient I saw that night. I could look out for them, just like I’d hoped someone was looking out for my little brother. I could make my patients feel that someone cared about them and cared about making them feel better.

We don’t do the best job of teaching our students and residents this. To them – and I remember feeling this way – another patient is more work, less sleep, and putting off that bathroom break for another half-hour.

But when you are the sister, brother, mother, father, or spouse of a patient, all you can think about is how to make your loved one more comfortable and ease their suffering.

I try to remember this. A lot of patients make this very difficult. However, we have to keep reminding ourselves why we do what we do. And that if our loved one was sitting on that stretcher, how you would want them to be treated.

We can’t fix some things. But every day my goal is to try to make just one person feel better. I can’t always do this for Jay, but maybe I can do it for someone else’s little brother.

Dr. Bundy is an attending physician at ERMed, LLC, in Montgomery, Ala., and a former photojournalist, who not only sings in the car, but talks to herself, is addicted to diet drinks and shoes, and thinks emergency medicine is the greatest specialty.