Changes

Work drama, it is just inherent in any business I guess. Tia deals with it in spades (mostly related to her contact with outside vendors or different sites) and I deal with it in more of an immediate sense. Though I try not to be involved in it, it certainly affects me as it affects those around me. The biggest thing of the moment is the relative instability of staffing.

The way our clinic is set up, each doctor has one medical assistant. They really work in teams of 2......one doing rooming functions like setting up the rooms, getting vitals, taking patients back and doing any in-clinic tests required along with refill requests, and the other on the phone with call ins, doing prior authorizations, and arranging the various scans, blood tests, etc that the doctors order. The team has to be fairly symbiotic, as they both tackle issues relating to the same doctors, so it is hard when there is a weak link or, in this case, someone new who is learning on the job.

When I accepted the position, the pod I work in (there are 4 total pods, each with ostensibly 4 doctors/4 MAs/and 1 nurse) had 4 MAs with experience ranging from 17yrs to 7 months. No one, however, was remotely new. Overall it was evidently quite cohesive. I say 'was' because the day I started was evidently 1 day past one of the other MAs leaving. She was replaced by a float. Then, just a few short weeks later, another MA (who had been there for a few years), also left. They replaced her with a new hire and jettisoned the float. So, within the first month, we had lost 2 veteran staff. Now, the formerly newest MA got offered another position (almost all offers have gone thru Providence which is apparently renowned for paying more and providing better benefits) and is strongly considering it. So, in less than 2 months, I may go from the least experienced to the second most experienced in our pod of 5. Not very comforting I have to admit because, though I do not perform the same duties, I lean heavily on the MAs. Suffice to say I am not happy and my podmates are downright distressed. In addition to this, another new MA who was hired for our pod, was instead kept in another pod.

In news directed related to me, there were another 4 interviewees for the triage position and at least one of them will be offered a position. Now it is an issue of them accepting, making it through all the hoops associated with getting hired in (background checks, drug screens, etc) and then getting set up and trained. So, best case, probably a ready to go product by mid to late October. I hope hope hope by flu season. Somehow I imagine that is going to totally suck.

I still waffle frequently about my job, but I am not sure what else to really do at the moment. I still waffle in much the same way about school. A constant dance of should I or shouldn't I. Here is hoping for the clarity or at least some rest on the long weekend. Then back to god knows what.