Hey friends,
Okay so let's talk about one of the most horrific days I have ever had...
To give you guys a little information about myself, I have been in the medical field for over 18 years. Majority of those years I spent as a Phlebotomist. Now for those that are not aware of what that is, we are also called... the Blood Suckers, the Day Walkers, the Vampires, etc. etc.
For the past 4-5 years, I have become a traveling phlebotomist. Basically I travel to different facilities nationwide, on assignments 8-13 weeks, depending on what the facilities require of me.
On this particular assignment, I am in a facility that has a terrible turnover of employees, mainly in the lab and mainly their Phlebots ( as they call them). Over the last few months, I have definitely figured what the main reason is for their turnover...the management team SUCKS!!
I mean no disrespect to anyone, but come on!! How is it that you do not have a PRN person (as needed employee), On Call list (a person(s) signed up every weekend in case there is a shortage) or any sort of backup for when there are times when others will not be able to make it for whatever reason, is beyond me!! But, as I stated before, I understand and again...MANAGEMENT SUCKS!!
This one particular day, I came in early, as I seem to do often since there is a shortage, and after I clocked in and made my way to the front to prepare myself to go up on the floors, I am informed that several people called out due to illnesses BUT the team lead for the morning shift did not call anyone to come and replace the people that would not be showing up for the evening and I would be alone on the floors.
Now, walk with me as I tell you how LIVID I was at this situation because this is a 350+ hospital with several floors and I would be ALONE doing all of the work. There are two processors in the lab that needed to be down there for the evening, because one of their fellow employees called out as well for the evening. So all I could say was, "Ok. I will do what I can, so please ask the nurses to bare with me."
Even though I knew this will be difficult because there will be labs that will be late for their timed tests, as well as the ones that are labeled STAT (which basically trumps any other testing because it is very detrimental to the care process). One person came in from another facility that is within this particular healthcare system and she was able to stay with me for a few hours but then she had to leave due to her having to be at
her facility at 4am the next morning for her shift.
We cleared as many of the floors that would could together but then at 7:30 pm she had to leave. So for the next 3 and 1/2 hours, I had to run the entire hospital alone. Granted, I did everything that I could and there were times I was at least 1 hour behind with the patients, but I was able to get ALL of the patients done on my own.
The night shift came in and when they had learned of what I had been through, the pain on their faces was non other than how they could not understand why they were not called earlier in the day so that one of them could come in earlier to assist.
I just met their glances and stated... "I don't know, I just barely work here" and walked off with a giggle.
I finished giving report, which was nothing to give because I had finished all of the floors, there were not patients that needed any labs and all floors were cleaned and maintained so they would not have to come in and do any clean up from anything that was left from my shift.
Fast forward to today....
In our daily afternoon huddle, the supervisor congratulated first shift on getting
96% lab draws and nothing was said to me about my horrific night.
Not an "I'm sorry this occurred to you" or "thank you for handling that situation without any incidents" not even a hand shake of appreciation that even though some labs were late, NOTHING was missed for the entire night.
It just goes to show you that not everyone is made for management.
Just like in any relationship...appreciate your employees and treat them right or someone else will because they can NEVER, EVER EVER ask me to come back to this facility or extend my contract. No ma'am, no sir, NO WAY JOSE!!
Love & Light,
WillaJai ππ
#IamWillaJai
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