Doing work

[sk732]

I guess, since we're speaking of doing work, my issue isn't that I'm afraid of or dislike hard work, but that I get tired really quickly of having ot work extra hard at my job because other people can't be bothered to do their job.  My ER is over run most days with the victims of bone idleness or just plain burnout because the people supposed to be manning the outlying ER's in my region aren't (unless it is convenient).  We're also bogged down because nursing home docs and nurses (who don't nurse much anymore in some of those places) again just send people to the ER instead of managing them primarily first.   Folks get sent in from walk in clinics because the people there are afraid to make clinical decisions about simple things.  I get to see some pretty cool medicine here, but I'm getting to the point where I'm burning out too because the hospital and the ER I work in isn't designed for the number and type of people we're seeing...and having to keep because nobody else will even take their own patients back to their hospitals, so the ER becomes overflow, slowing down actual flow.

 

SK 

[TWR]

For those of you who are seeing 20+ patients a day...

* When a patient starts to cry, do you hand them a tissue and wait sympathetically, or shut them down and move on?

* When a patient is still smoking/overweight/poor glycemic control/whatever, do you take the time to listen to them, build on their desires, and encourage them? Or do you just berate them?

* Do you notice patient's weight loss or smoking status has improved and say "Good job" and give them a sincere smile?

* Do you ask about the non-medically-related-thing the patient was concerned about last time?

* Have you built up enough goodwill and insight to a patient that you have a good sense for when failure should be gently reprimanded rather than unconditional acceptance communicated?

 

One of the reasons I cannot see more patients a day is because I am emotionally exhausted trying to congratulate, cajole, mourn with, listen to, and teach. The medicine isn't hard; but nor is it sufficient. I refuse to become someone who treats all patients as solely specific medical problems. They are each men and women worthy of respect, doing the best they can in a world of conflicting values and priorities.

 

I work a lot harder than many people who see far more patients a day. It's just a different sort of hard.

Rev Ronin, I applaud your work ethic. You are a newbie of sort, (4 years)? I tried to copy and paste what you said above. When I owned my own practice and worked alone in NY, that is precisely how I worked. No COO or CP telling me anything. The practice thrived and so did I. It was the best part of my career as a PA. However I did work 8-6 M-F and 1/2 day Sat.. All my choice.

Now if I practiced like you do in Texas I would be looking for work constantly. It all about the money and profit.

[Croooz]

Not a PA...however I have experienced some of this generation's lazy folk just like lazy X-ers, and Boomers.  Lazy is lazy.  My issue is less with the laziness and more with the true lack of coping skills.  The hypersensitivity, the safe places in college, the outrage if they do not hear how special they are for just being alive.  Now if the shoe fits...if not then it doesn't apply to you. 

 

I've been a federal employee for two years now and you wanna talk about lazy!!!  Many times though it is the systems/policies we work under that create these ovens that bake good people into crispy "lazy" government employees.  I just left the Social Security Administration and that was because the workloads are ridiculous.  The harder one works their reward is...well more work!  Become an expert in efficiency and time management and the managers cram more and more and more into your schedule.  You look around and see people doing far less get promoted or work taken from them and given to you...  Well you quickly realize you either become "lazy" or drive yourself insane being buried by your own efforts to be a productive employee.

I'm all for the work/life balance.  The issue I see is that it's not really a balance.  We all want time away from work to enjoy our lives but when we spend our work hours not doing work so that we can plan what we will do on our off hours...that's a problem.  The irony is I type this during work... ha!  I'm not being lazy though.  I'm new and they have only assigned me things to read.  I assumed they wanted me to read that within my first week so I did.  I read it at work, home, on the metro, on the toilet...highlighted and with notes and questioned.  My mentor told me I have three months to go through it...  So I have plenty of down time now.  Pays to go from a place that worked you like a dog to another that believes in giving employees time to learn.  Go figure.

And YES...I'm back.  :)

[rev ronin]

Rev Ronin, I applaud your work ethic. You are a newbie of sort, (4 years)?

Yep.  Graduated in Fall 2012.  That's after a whole career of business IT, however.  I'm an Atari-wave Gen X'er, and I've been working continually (yes, even in PA school) for 2/3rds of my life.

 

Sad thing is, at 4 years of practice, and at the rate new PAs are being churned out and older ones are retiring, I've probably got more time as a PA than 25% of the PA workforce...