(1) Coquette, I cannot even imagine. My heart goes out to you. I keep your family in my prayers too.
(2)
My long rant (
which is petty and insignificant compared to Coquette): What is going through management's mind?
Overview of Procedure: Fecals and Dewormings are REQUIRED once a year or a client must sign a waiver. I appreciate the effort of my practice to encourage clients to do those procedures because they protect the household from zoonotic diseases in addition to being a good preventive practice. They encourage (RECOMMEND) clients to actually do this 2 x a year. If the client boards or grooms at our practice we require (no waiver allowed) that they have had at least one of the two within the last 6 mo. Once again, I agree with these practices.
Side-problem: Many clients are hit by the recession and are cost conscious. When the him-and-haw while I go over vacc and treatments I will tell them that we do not require them but we recommended every 6 mo.
Main-problem: I honestly do not like feeling pressured to bully clients by not telling them our actual guidelines as what is required and recommended (it feels unethical). I dont think it is a flaw that I think we should be cost conscious with our clients and win their respect by showing that we actually assessing the needs of the patient (and while trying not to gouge them for $$). When I do think that the client should (for various environmental factors) do recommended procedures I use all the knowledge in my head (that I know is okay to say to clients) to educate them as to why they should do such-n-such. This is extremely successful with clients who want to do what is right for the patient and their household.
Side-problem: Another challenge I face simultaneously is that I am quite typically the only assistant who is trained to do appointments for the majority of my shift. That means I have to balance both dr. and tech appointments by myself if there is not LVT or if the LVT is doing a dental (or etc.). My practice cannot attract experience employees because they pay us poorly... so all we have is untrained noobs.
Side-problem: In addition to that, reception is held to an incredibly low standard for quality of work and they basically have none of liability. Yet they nip at our heals on the intercom all the time thinking we sitting on our butts all day... I know that I know the vacc protocol inside and out... they dont... we even have to recheck their chart work every night for next day appointments because they refuse to learn or care (not just my opinion at work).
I know that if I am not insanely busy I do talk about the recommended procedures and will talk through with clients about why we make the RECOMMENDATIONS. If we a busy I have to keep to a tight schedule... and the doctors dont even disagree with not doing the recommended 6 mo deworming and fecal... and they do not ever pull out the waivers for that type of declination.
Why I Need to Vent I: A receptionist that usually likes to act like she knows everything and is extremely confrontational claims to me that I did my job wrong when I didnt say the client HAD to do the RECOMMENDED fecal or deworming. I say I did what was required and that, that was not required ... and I usually tell them unless they are coming back for grooming or boarding they need to do it... I know that it is most likely that I did mention that, if I didnt I happy to apologize/I probably was on a time crunch thanks to the staffing problem... She says the client is very mad and is furious with me because I acted like I was busy and didnt say that she had to do those. Then she said she was going to tell out manager and that she was trying to save my ass.
Why I Need to Vent II: In response to the manager discussion with me:
(1) I dont think it is ethical to be not allowed to discuss with clients what is required and what is recommended... legit gonna get my a** chewed out for that,
(2) I dont think they that it is my job over the veterinarians to push clients to treatments that are required AND treatments that are recommended
(3) I dont think it is solely my job over the veterinarians to have waivers filled (and my practitioners dont practice this enough to make it worth yelling at me about)
(4) Of course I feel defensive after the receptionist runs off claiming she is gonna tattle on me (how old are we)
I think I must be going insane... Its beyond depressing w applications having gone the way they have... and personal life problems... but I go into every exam room smiling, light hearted, ask them multiple times what their concerns are, go over the vacc and treatments due, and bend over backwards to get everything done for the doctors... (this is me 98.5% of the time at worst)... and they cannot even replace me if I left (for sure... no one else who does mornings is trained)
thank you for letting me vent fellow SDNers
your welcome to tell me if I am crazy, wrong, not wrong/not right, or right... I dont know how other people in me field would view this.