Ancillary Personnel

Ancillary does not necessarily mean subordinate.  Other definitions include:  supplementary, assisting, extra, complementary, supporting.  Most telling is its antonym:  necessary.

When you look at this aspect of the definition, ancillary is a correct term for therapy.  Every patient in the hospital has to have a doctor and a nurse.  Every patient even has to have housekeeping and food services.  All rehabilitation therapies are complementary in nature and not necessary to every patient, as the other services are.  

It is easy to get caught up in labels.  I’m more concerned with how I’m treated than what I’m called.  There have certainly been health care personnel who have treated me as subordinate.  But they were few and far between.  Even though my position is technically ancillary to nursing, I was usually treated with as much or more respect, and my opinion given equal or more weight, than the nurses who were assigned to the same patients.  

We need to stop getting so wrapped up in labels.  I’ve found when I concern myself with doing my job professionally and treating others respectfully, everything else takes care of itself.