Hospital workers are generally kept away from the care facilities per se, and, in particular, from surgical operations. Nonetheless and obviously in exceptional cases only, it has happened that emergency services have called upon non-medical employees to care for patients, for example those suffering from hand injuries. Anne Monjaret proposes to go back over a number of narratives in order to comprehend more deeply what they mean. The workers had to improvise ‘being surgeons’. They and the patients had to ‘go through the motions’, facing, together, their efforts and pain. Experiencing the suffering of others was acknowledged by the workers, and that gave way to recognizing and telling about their emotions. Telling their stories allowed the workers to recognize their belonging to two different worlds: the one inherent in their own jobs, the other institutionalized medicine, despite both having contradictory values.