A Manitoba resident is promoting empathy for health care workers after an eye-opening experience in the ER.

Nikki McIvor recently took to social media to share her story, a post that has since been widely shared. In it, she explains how she took her young son into the ER only to find it would be a five-hour wait. During her time in the waiting room, she says they saw many others becoming impatient and even angry towards the nursing staff.

"We see others go in before us and wonder when we are going to get called. We wonder what is going on that could possibly be taking so long," McIvor explains.

When her son was finally admitted to see a doctor, she describes how they witnessed an ambulance arrive as staff rushed to provide care for the critical patient.

"I watched as the man's wife got the news no wife ever wants to hear. I watched as phone calls were made. I watched as family members informed other family members. I watched as the family gathered and said their good-byes and consoled one another. I watched as paramedics patted each other on the backs, wiped tears, and gave hugs. I watched as nurses consoled those grieving, and yet still attended to patients in the rooms. I watched as Doctors spoke softly to loved ones, kept a brave face on, and worked under extreme pressures," McIvor wrote.

McIvor says she realized this is the reality many often forget when sitting in the waiting room. "Why others are going in before us, and who is coming through the back door, the doctors and nurses taking a minute to themselves to gather their thoughts, emotions and pick themselves and each other up after a difficult situation."

In the end, McIvor spent over seven hours at the hospital with her son, playing games and making paper airplanes while they waited. And while everyone's been guilty of growing impatient in a waiting room, "after today, I will never waste a breath of frustration in a medical waiting room or to any of the staff," she says.

"We are all at a heightened emotional state in those situations. But so are the people working in them."

The experience was summed up by her young son as they left the hospital when he handed his new teddy bear to an older man to give to the woman he'd seen crying outside his exam room.

"He didn't know what happened, but rather than being impatient and upset he could sense the love and heartbreak around him," McIvor explains.

The post has been shared hundreds of times and sparked an outpouring of support and gratefulness from others. She says they later found out the teddy bear was received by the grieving family member and they were deeply moved by the story.

"It warmed my heart to know my post reached the family," she adds.