the person who is training me in the secretarial aspect of my new job is a lovely girl. she has been working in this position for many years (as she reminds me often) and i know my role as far as what i can do, when i should talk, when i should remain silent. she has a very spirited personality and the only way i can describe it is she reminds me of chrissy from three's company - a bit airheaded, verrry giggly. there are times it is mind-numbing, although in all fairness, i am sure there are times i lead her into said daftness.
uh, probably not :)
i attended a computer class the day before yesterday to update my knowledge on software we are using and one of the things my co-worker/trainer refuses to do is use appropriate coding upon admission of a patient - she insists on using the "pregnancy/observation" code because "i am not a doctor or a nurse, i am not here to diagnose people." agreed. however, if a patient comes in with "PIH" (pregnancy-induced hypertension), there is an appropriate code for that and while it may not come up exactly "PIH," it is a code that is looked at by the state and we get funding based on our high-risk status; in other words, the more high-risk patients we get, the more funding we get by way of grants to do what we do. if the state is looking at the codes and seeing "pregnancy/observation," well, we look like we are just your average childbirth hospital and all is well with our patients, therefore funds are diverted to hospitals and clinics that could really "use" it.
i understand the concept; she refuses to grasp it.
we had words yesterday over a patient who came in with "decreased fetal movement." she did not feel comfortable because she does not diagnose patients (nor do i), but the script from the doctor, in the doctor's handwriting, clear as a bell believe it or not, stated: DECREASED FETAL MOVEMENT. i do not believe i am diagnosing anybody if the doctor him/herself is writing this under the abbreviation Dx: which is diagnosis.
it is clearly incorrect the way she is training me, she is refusing to convert to the proper way and yesterday, she took a major affront at my stance and played the "i've been here 14 years, are you going to tell me how to do my job?" card.
what do i do about this?
second scenario (sorry this is turning into a novel) is i took a phone message from a doctor's office prior to going to lunch that said they were sending in a patient to rule out pre-term labor (she was 24 weeks). the woman gave me the patient's name and i wrote out the message (i bring my own message pad with a carbon so if someone says they never got the message, i have back-up that the message was at least taken by me), stuck it to "chrissy's" side of the desk and pointedly said to her: "please pull this chart, put the message on it and give it to triage so they know she is coming." she said okay, i went to lunch.
about and hour and a half later, the triage nurse comes up to the desk, peeved, and says "this lady who just came in said her doctor's office called and said we were to expect her - when, exactly, was i supposed to get this message?" chrissy says "oh, the message is right here..." and did nothing to take account for the fact i passed her the ball, she bobbled it a bit, and we both sat there and looked a bit foolish at the now-fuming nurse who was reading the message i took for her an hour and a half earlier. she storms away.
i looked at chrissy and said, "that was the message i had put in front of you on the desk before i went to lunch, isn't it?"
"oh, well!" giggle, giggle.
now i am fuming. i sat there for a minute, said a prayer to the Holy Spirit to give me a bit of direction: take it on the chin or defend myself? and, not waiting for His response, got up and went down to triage to talk to the nurse. i defended myself.
"i want to tell you something...i took that phone message and gave it to chrissy to take care of and went to lunch. i am sorry now that i did not follow-up on it, but i had assumed she had done what i asked her and she did not. i am sorry."
"it's not your fault - you are being trained and should not have even known to do that already; it was her fault, not yours, don't blame yourself."
i am not there to make myself look better than anybody else. i am there to learn my job, do it to the best of my ability, make a decent little paycheck for myself, but mainly to get benefits for my family. however, it has been a little while since i have been in the workforce as an employee and not a manager and am wondering if i should have simply sat there and not said anything and looked like i did not care about what happened or if i should have done what i did and defended myself? i am not trying to move up any ladder, i am not trying to take this girl's job or make her look foolish and i am afraid that may be how it came across....
how would you have handled this situation?
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