The Farce is Strong with This One

I ran a few errands and bought supplies last night, and by the time I drove back down to where I met the man from last post, it was after dark and not a soul to be found. I went back today after work and he wasn't there, but THREE other people were in the vicinity begging.

I had two fleece blankets, a fleece pullover, three emergency blankets,

So they can stay warm while they protect themselves from the aliens

a package of thick black socks, and a handful of canned pastas and wrapped snacks.

So I divided everything up into three bags and gave one to each. Each person seemed genuinely grateful.

In the course of getting looped back around to head home (I had to make several highway entrances & exits and U-turns) I came across at least 3 more people. The first one got the rest of my snacks and my own purple fleece blanket. He was smoking (BLECH) but he also thanked me repeatedly.

So... hopefully 4 people will be a little less cold and a little more warm when the ice storms hit over the next two days.

IN OTHER NEWS. Behold this bullshit masterpiece, sent to clinic #2's front office assistant, with whom I must tolerate 8 hours every Tuesday and Wednesday:

FOA,

You seemed upset by an electronic message I sent on Wednesday afternoon.

_

I said:

You don’t need to “line up all the nurses and Manager and explain what a referral is” vs a renewal. A returning patient gets a Referral 223. Some staff prefer to call it a renewal, but the fact is we cannot legally see a patient if they don’t have either.

You replied:

OK, I WAS JOKING WITH FOA-IN-TRAINING. WHAT I SAID WAS “EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A RENEWAL AND REFERRAL’ I ALSO SAID THE SAME THING TO OTHER NURSE.  THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANY OF THIS. [THE PATIENT’S] RENEWAL IS IN HER CHART. FROM NOW ON, I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU COULD COME AND TALK TO ME INSTEAD OF MESSAGING. I THINK THINGS ARE GETTING WAY OUT OF CONTEXT FOR NO REASON.

I said:

I used your words, not mine, and in my book it would be unprofessional to address you in a room full of people who were sharing your “joke,” not to mention that I don’t have the time or interest in pulling you aside to ask you not to publicly “joke” at the expense of anticoag nurses. I had to include Other Nurse on the message about the patient who was checked in without a referral because I didn’t catch it until after I had opened the chart, and needed to explain that I don’t have the patient taken care of. It’s a statement of fact that we didn’t have a referral for her, and it needed to be addressed.

_

I’m sorry that you are bothered by communication via messaging. Let me explain exactly why I have chosen to communicate with you in writing.

The punchline of your joke seemed to be that you knew what you were doing and the ACC nurses didn’t, based on your preference for the use of a single word that did not interfere with jobs getting done or communication about referrals. That didn’t strike me as coworkers lightening the mood together, that was one group of people laughing at another group of people.

That same afternoon I heard you speaking frankly, again to the other front office/heart staff in a public area, that someone had made a comment to you about your messaging in all caps. You said “They’re going to have to get used to it” because you type in all caps no matter how you are communicating, even texts. I’m not sure if you meant that as another joke, but what I heard was that someone came to you with a concern, and that you not only dismissed the concern outright, but made fun of them with other coworkers. I have spoken with Other Other Nurse [one that did most of my orientation, that I really like] about messaging in all caps, but not you. It is commonly considered to be yelling. It affects the tone of your messages, and I find it much harder to read, especially in the awkward font that Our Messenger uses.

When you’re talking to other coworkers about someone that way, it strikes me as disrespectful. If you speak in the same manner directly to the person who is raising concern, that is a confrontation, not a conversation, and I will not tolerate it. I am not willing to have an unwitnessed interaction if you are comfortable sharing coworker concerns with others and openly stating that you plan to continue behavior that bothers the other person. I used a direct quote just minutes after you said the words, and your response was “THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANY OF THIS” and I was taking your words “WAY OUT OF CONTEXT.” Written communication is verifiable by all parties. The conversation IS the context. If you feel uncertain about what I am trying to say here, please ask me and I will clarify, again in writing.

For coworkers to laugh with each other, there needs to be a mutual understanding and respect. I’m new to the clinic and I’m glad you have a good rapport with many of the staff, but I haven’t felt any professional respect in the communications from you. For example, one day you messaged me “MR [JOHN SMITH] IS STILL SITTING OUT HERE – WITH THE NOTE BESIDE HIS APPT TIME”. The patient had been arrived almost 20 minutes after his appointment time, and you sent that message one minute after you checked him in. I replied “I don’t know why you’re saying ‘still.’ When I took the last patient back, she was the only patient checked in.” You ignored my message and offered no explanation. The appointment note said “HH CX INR AT 2PM.” You commonly put notes on patients that need to reschedule, and it looked to me like you noted that the patient canceled their INR. The patient was not arrived, so I had no reason to think otherwise. That tone and content is consistent with the way you have been communicating with me – statements that offer no context or even sound like accusations, which provide no explanation of the situation.

Here is what I am requesting:

Do not mock me with your other coworkers.

Explain what you need instead of statements that don’t give me information (e.g. “MR SMITH IS HERE”).

Do not give me commands (e.g. “SEE MR SMITH NEXT”).

Most of the time I have no idea what’s going on in the waiting area or the heart clinic, so if you need to talk to me to coordinate patient care, please explain the situation instead of trying to tell me what to do. Most of the time I take patients based on arrival time vs appt time – if there are multiple patients waiting, the patients who are there on time get seen first. I know sometimes the patient’s appointment is time-sensitive due to other commitments, or there is a check-in delay , for example, related to registration or another office working in the patient chart and they were really on time. But I don’t know that if no one tells me. What I’m asking for is clear, professional communication related to the running of the clinic and the care of our patients.

As I said, I’m not going to create a spectacle. If you feel that we can’t come to an understanding, feel free to get Manager involved for some face-to-face discussion away from the rest of the clinic staff. Please let me know if anything I’ve said is unclear.

Sincerely,

Tempest Storm