Hi. I’m still alive, always lurking in the background and avoiding my blog because every time I sit down to write and I see that little blinking cursor, I freeze up and go brain dead. But I feel like life is starting to settle down and I have found my new normal, so I feel ready to start sharing my life again.
Work is good. My new nurse has been working with our team for over a year now and things are settling down into a routine. I feel like we all work extremely well together, we all get along, we make each other laugh, patients compliment us as a team, we throw fun little parties, we make an effort to eat lunch together at times and we genuinely like each other. I hope this continues for a very long time. I feel like after the two years of hell I had with a super crappy, crass, rude/crude nurse, I deserve some fun times at work. And I’m having fun, I truly am. I ADORE the people I work with and I don’t mind going to work each day. In fact, I really enjoy it.
If I haven’t told you, I work in a neurosurgery clinic. I feel like it’s the perfect balance of patient interaction. My doctor sees patients in the clinic two times a week, and when he’s in surgery the rest of the week, I manage the phones and make sure tests are scheduled and we’re ready for the next batch of patients for the upcoming week. I love this balance because I truly don’t think I could handle working in a family medicine clinic where they see patients every day. I generally don’t like people. I know that’s sort of a shocking thing to say considering I’m in healthcare, but I can only handle listening, sympathizing and being nice to people for so long before I’m simply DONE. I truly enjoy helping people and it’s SO REWARDING to see people feel so much better after having surgery, but being at everyone’s beck and call for 45 hours per week just sucks the life out of you.
But, as I mentioned, I have a phenomenal team who all pitch in and pull their weight. I trust them and I hope they trust me. Somehow, we get the job done. We have perfected the way we do things and our clinics run like clockwork. So much so, in fact, that my boss has asked me to put a clinic prep “guide” together to teach my fellow medical assistants. I guess the doctors, (not my doctor, thankfully), have been complaining that things aren’t being done fully or correctly and they want changes. I’m flattered my boss is asking me to do this and I’m glad to help in any way I can, but if people aren’t willing to make those changes, then no amount of “teaching” will help them. I guess we’ll see how it goes.
We’re planning some fun stuff in the upcoming weeks at work. We have two birthdays coming up, our medical secretary and our physician’s assistant. The nurse and I have been shopping for presents and we’re planning on “themed” food days. For example, our doctor’s birthday was the first of June and we had a “beach” party because he mentioned how he really wants to take his family to someplace like Mexico but he’s afraid of exposing them to “bad” people so we brought the beach to him. I think he really enjoyed himself. Here’s a picture of our beach party:
Starting on the left side: Nurse, Doctor, me, secretary and physician’s assistant. Our facial expressions KILL me! LOL (By the way, see the matching scrubs? Our doctor bought us matching scrubs for Christmas – how cool is that??)
As you can see, we like to act goofy.
Then we had a 4th of July party. We actually had the party on the 2nd and here’s why. Since 4th of July was on a Wednesday, and we have clinics on Wednesdays, we tried really, really hard to talk our doctor out of having clinic on Monday, then some of us could take a few vacation days off. But for whatever reason, our doctor didn’t want to do that so we thought, “okay, fine. If we have to work on that Monday, then we’re going to have a party, damn it.”
And we did. Our doctor, and another doctor from another team, bought BBQ meat from City Butcher and we all brought in side dishes. I brought in deviled eggs and Snicker-doodle cookies. and though it’s always a challenge to try and find time to eat together on clinic days, we managed to do it. It’s so fun to let our hair down and just be goofy and funny. It blows off steam and we bond a little bit more as a team.
Here’s our 4th of July party picture:
God Bless America, I love these people! LOL The nurse and the PA are hugging me because I jokingly said, “I don’t know what to do with my arms” since I was in the middle.
Here are few older pictures:
This was when our nurse came back from maternity leave. She actually surprised us one day in clinic. We were setting things up and she walked in and said, “I’m back bitches!” I squealed like a stuffed pig and hugged her. (Which is sort of a big deal because I don’t like hugs – at all). So, we were all feeling a bit stupid and giddy in this picture. It was a very good day.
This picture is our PA’s birthday last year:
Yes. We made t-shirts because we love her so much.
We’re a fun group, what can I say?? We enjoy each other. I don’t know if our doctor really knows how to take being surrounded by so many crazy, alpha females, but damn, we have fun.
I’m so, SO thankful we have a fun group. I hope none of us goes anywhere for quite some time.
In the meantime, we’re planning a few more parties. The entire clinic is dressing up for Halloween. The year before last, our group dressed up like the Wizard of Oz, I was the scarecrow (of course), our old nurse was Dorothy, our secretary was Glenda the Good Witch, our PA was the wicked witch and our doctor was the Wizard of Oz but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to participate because his dad passed away a few days before Halloween. But we had a yellow brick road around our part of the clinic, a huge Wizard head, a house, a tornado, haunted trees and a hot air balloon. It was pretty incredible and OF COURSE we won the costume trophy that year. We didn’t dress up last year, it fell on a surgery day and our team wasn’t together (I was sort of glad, I actually hate dressing up), but THIS YEAR, it’s going to be a blast.
The entire clinic, (well, the teams that have clinic on that day and since it falls on a Wednesday, that would include us), are dressing up in time period costumes. Each team got to pick a time era and our team chose the roaring 20’s. I GET TO DRESS UP LIKE A FLAPPER!! I can not wait! We’ve already picked out our dresses on Amazon – they are all going to be the same kind of dress but different colors, and we found a “flapper” set of accessories to go along with it. Including candy cigarettes! I’m pretty sure I already have some shoes that will work.
It. Is. Going. To. Be. A. Hoot.
Our doctor is game, so our PA is going to find some wingtip shoes, suspenders, tie and a gangster hat for him to wear.
Oh, don’t you worry, we’ll take pictures.
Then, for Christmas, we’re not dressing up, but we’re decorating our clinic for a Holly/Jolly Open House. We plan on having five (?) themed Christmas trees, a hot chocolate station, a “decorate-your-own-cookie” station, an area for the kids to do a craft and watch snippets of “Elf” while their parents rub elbows with our doctors, a station for people to write notes to our soldiers and a LIVE Santa where we will have a photographer taking pictures. The clinic is throwing this shin-dig to help promote neurosurgery to referring doctors in outlying areas. Since patients have more of a choice on where they can go now with insurance changes, (which, I’m not a big fan of OBummer care, but giving people a choice on where they want to go is a good thing), it’s forcing everyone in healthcare to compete and step up their game to provide better service. Capitalism is a good thing, people!
In addition, we’ve had two new doctors start in our clinic and a slew of new faces to staff those teams and I’ve been busy helping to cover those new doctors as well as train new people. It’s been busy, we plan on getting busier (because the hospital hasn’t approved to hire another MA for our newest doctor yet, which means we’re all having to take turns to fill in and help out) but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Everyone is so incredible and I’m so blessed to work with each and every one.
I have to confess, this time two years ago, I didn’t know if I would be able to stay in my current job. I was miserable and so stressed out that it was affecting my health but I’m glad I stuck it out because honestly, I’ve made some pretty incredible friends and I’m really having a lot of fun – which is a rarity in today’s working world.
Write From Karen 