Likes and Dislikes About the Job
What I dislike about my job:
(OK, folks, this topic was a suggestion from someone. So, if you happen to be my boss reading this, please understand I truly mean every word I say. Including the fact that I know I work for a great company that does its best to respond to what we need. And considering some of the things that could happen - layoffs, cookbooks, etc. - I think I made a good choice working where I work. End of caveat.)
I hate getting up in the morning and coming to work. I do not like alarm clocks or one of my multiple cats screeching that it is another day of joy and I need to get up and earn the money for their kitty litter.
That I now have to drive many, many miles to different clinics since I, temporarily (please Lord), don't have a home clinic right now, is torture. This morning I was thinking about all the wear and tear on my poor old car and how there is no way I can afford to get a new one. And how I wish I could afford a new air conditioner since mine chose to break at the beginning of summer!
Opening up the clinic with people waiting on me makes me nervous. I like to be ready to see patients.
I HATE our electronic medical record. If Mr. Obama thinks EMRs are going to help the health care system, I wish he had to use the piece of... well, you get the idea. I noticed today that the AMA has a copyright on this thing. That explains EVERYTHING.
I hate equipment that breaks down. Computers that have been used 12-14 hours daily for over 2 years, with sticky keys, being replaced with another computer with a different sticky key. Printers that don't print, scanners that fail to scan, voicemail that sends you your messages a day after you get them, shredders that get stuck in reverse, cholesterol checking machines!! People who tell me what to do who are not my boss (any people who tell me what to do) and the biggie: people who have little or no clinical experience trying to tell me how to treat my patients.
Doing things that make no sense, just to follow rules that are not in the least designed for retail care drives me insane. It is necessary to have standards but retail clinics are sometimes square pegs that are trying to be fitted into round holes. We are still too new and I think what might be appropriate for some areas of healthcare is stupid for us. Case in point: having to label a specimen cup with the patients' name and DOB, when they are the only ones to handle the specimen and you are the only one to whom they are going to hand it back. It is not like there are going to be multiple urine specimens hanging around the store. However, the government asks, we have to do.
I do not like being the janitor, especially when my co-worker from the night before was human enough to forget to empty her cup of ice. I looked at the floor this AM and saw a half filled cup of melted tea and almost freaked. It looked like... well, you guess. It wasn't and I remember when I accidently rushed out and left a real specimen. My co-worker forgave me.
Sitting in a clinic for hours with no patients until it is time to go to lunch and getting three in a row.
Not seeing patients until all of the sudden at closing time they show up. And if they have been sick for a week, I have to remember not to flinch. Insult to injury is if I have to come back the next day. I am a wreck. I am too old to work 30 hours in a 48 hour period.
Again, no patients until 3 or 4 show up simultaneously. And all of them are "in too much of a hurry" to wait.
- Patients who come in with a "sinus infection" (after one day of symptoms) and NEED an antibiotic.
- Patients who are rude and condescending.
- Patients who don't have time to be sick.
- Patients who are going on vacation and need to feel well immediately.
I don't hate these people; I just am frustrated with our society that teaches us that if you feel bad, take a pill. Where does it say that you are not going to feel bad sometime and if you are sick, someone should fix it immediately? And for all those who don't have the time to be sick, guess what, your body says: too bad, take the time.
I dislike dealing with Insurance and people's ignorance about it. Some people don't even know the name of their insurance company. I hate that healthcare is a business but that's life as we know it. I don't like insurance companies but I think you have to put some of the blame on the people who use it (and misuse it). And when I tell someone how much we cost and they can not afford to have their child seen, a little part of me curls up and dies. When people come in with major stuff going on and want me to fix it because we don't cost as much as an emergency room, I feel bad. But not bad enough to not refer them on to a higher level of care. I am not stupid, just filled with angst.
And that leads me to what I like about my job:
#1 My supervisor
#2 Seeing kids
#3 Acute (minor) versus chronic care, episodic versus long-term care
#4 My paycheck (even though it is not enough)
There are more things that I like about my job, but I will save those for another time. Like any other job, there are days when everything works wonderfully and I am glad I do what I do. And there are days when I plot my revenge and think working anywhere else would be a step up. I am not sure how much longer I will want to keep on doing what I do now. I have been here for two years. I may retire from this job or something else may come along. But I do know I am glad I have had this experience and there is nothing in the world like knowing you have helped someone. In this position, I have educated, treated and listened to many people. I feel that for that period of time I have intervened positively in their lives. For me, that is what being a nurse is about: caring and helping (sentimental but true).