Psychotic Rotation Department Secretaries

[MD'05]

Maybe I am the only one faced with psychotic departmental staff, but I will start this thread anyway.

What is the craziest thing that a department secretary has done to you in order to exert her authority over you?

Me: during a half-assed exam today, this dimwit refused to hand me a sharpened pencil that she had 20 of in her grimey, scaley hand. She told everyone to take an unsharpened pencil and sharpen it. I don't know why something so small has pissed me off so badly. Perhaps it was such a flagrent display of misused authority. What an absolute hagfish this woman is and she is in desperate need of a good dental flossing too boot!! G*d, does that woman have funky breath. My aloe vera plant has a higher IQ and fresher breath!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MacTavish]

One of the most eye-opening experiences of the 3rd year has been the amount of b*llsh*t that we have to put up with from these people (meaning secretaries, nurses, med techs, janitors, PAs...basically all non-M.D.s).

A few weeks back we had a Thanksgiving celebration in the Psych Ward I was working on at the time. The attending paid out of pocket (VA psych unit gets no love from the Pharm Reps) for luch for the whole staff. Anyway, the secretary says to the students "Hey med students...make sure are downstairs at 11:45 to fetch the food." So 11:45 roles around, and we are about to head downstairs when she walks in screaming "IT'S 11:45!!!!!! WHY AREN'T YOU DOWNSTAIRS!!!! GO NOW! NOW! NOW!!!!!!". We all looked at each other, like, "WTF just happened?".

Anyway, I think I have a better understanding now why some doctors can be such pricks to their support staff; they were abused for so many years and just have a lot of stored up bitterness.

 

[rice]

Yeah, I learned that you have to be nice to these people as well. Someone told me to occasionally bring cakes, brownies, cookies, etc. to appease them. However, being nice doesn't always guarantee that you will be treated fairly. I have some examples...

When I was on my Psych rotation, I was doing outpatient in the VA and I wanted to look up a patient's chart before seeing him. Okay, so I had no idea where it was and I asked the secretary 'do you know where the chart is?' and she didn't answer me (i.e. ignored me). Of course, I thought that she didn't hear me so I asked again. Again no response. Finally I had no idea and said "excuse me..." and she blew up on me and I was like what's going on (what's your major malfunction...). She said that I didn't say "good morning" to her. Geez gimme a break, I don't expect everyone to entitle me with a good morning every day and she expects me to kowtow to her....I said "good morning" and then she handed me the chart but I felt sooo dirty having to say it. Anyway, point being that if they want to be pricks to you they will, and sometimes being a nice guy makes other people feel that they can unload on you cause you'll take it. Sick, huh?

Another example is kind of disheartening too. My friend who interviewed for Anesthesiology said that on one of his interviews they were taking the applicants and showing them the OR. So they were walking in the halls around the OR and one of the girls didn't have a mask on, and a scrub nurse walks up to her and yells in her face "Put you mask on NOW!!" and shoves a mask onto her face. Everyone was shocked at her behavior and the docs complained to the head nurse, who profusely apologized. The story was that the scrub nurse in question thought the applicant was a medical student and that's why she yelled at her!!! Who knows how she would treat the residents. Needless to say, that applicant wasn't going to rank that program very high.

I'm sure I can think up of some more stories but you get the idea. Just don't get in their way, but if you need them to do their job and if they are acting like asses about it (for no good reason), you can either just do the job yourself or complain n go over their head (risk lots of wrath with this choice). Or just do what most of us do and take it and just rationalize it as that person's just a jerk.

 

[denali]

Originally posted by rice
Just don't get in their way, but if you need them to do their job and if they are acting like asses about it (for no good reason), you can either just do the job yourself or complain n go over their head (risk lots of wrath with this choice). Or just do what most of us do and take it and just rationalize it as that person's just a jerk.

And resolve to make sure you deal with that kind of behavior when you are in a position to do so (department chief, etc.)

 

[Galaxian]

Here's the way I see it...

"kill 'em with kindness. Come back at 'em with a mallet when you've got the credentials." Of course, by the time you've got the credentials, no one's gonna try to f*%& with you.

 

[huktonfonix]

The problem with many of these people is they have a complex and need to use their authoritah (as in Respect mah authoritah! ) to overcome a serious inferiority complex. And often they are union which means it is very difficult to get them fired for this behavior which poisons staff relations and often patient care. Most things can be accomplished by asking nicely, don't see why grown people gotta act like little bitches.

 

[Galaxian]

Wow, finally a mature, coherent post from Mr. Huktonfonix. I'm proud of you. However, do mind the potty mouth...

 

[huktonfonix]

Eat **** and die psychos! Gotta love the potty mouth.

 

[supercut]

On my Peds rotation: there was a daily noon conference with lunch. However, we were told by the course director that the students weren't allowed to eat any of the food provided. There was also a sign posted over the table where the food was always put out forbidding medical students to partake.

On my required FP rotation: I had been scheduled to take a Fri nite call in the ED of a rural hospital. However, I was hopitalized myself (at our main hospital in the city) for about 24 hours with uncontrollable vomiting. I spoke to the department secretary the following Monday to find out what I had to do to arrange to make up the call. When I told her I had been ill and admitted to the hospital myself. She looked me straight in the eye and said "Do you have proof?" Not, oh that's too bad. Or not Oh I hope you are feeling better. Nope. She simply demanded proof. Fortunately, she had given previous vibes of being like that so I had come prepared with my discharge papers. Still...

 

[rrreagan]

Originally posted by rice

Another example is kind of disheartening too. My friend who interviewed for Anesthesiology said that on one of his interviews they were taking the applicants and showing them the OR. So they were walking in the halls around the OR and one of the girls didn't have a mask on, and a scrub nurse walks up to her and yells in her face "Put you mask on NOW!!" and shoves a mask onto her face. Everyone was shocked at her behavior and the docs complained to the head nurse, who profusely apologized. The story was that the scrub nurse in question thought the applicant was a medical student and that's why she yelled at her!!! Who knows how she would treat the residents. Needless to say, that applicant wasn't going to rank that program very high.

[/B]

The applicant, by definition, was a medical student, wasn't she?
):
[Although probably not a local one].

 

[cjw0918]

I truly belive that these people who are so nasty must hate their jobs and lives with every ounce of their being. I try to remember this when they are mean, and I seek to avoid them at all costs later. There's a night nurse on psych who I wouldn't want to rescue me if I were being actively strangled by a patient on the unit. Good God, I'd owe that wench for life. I think these people are just on little power trips and need better more enriching lives. They're kind of pathetic if you think about it really. Being mean to a hapless med student is like being cruel to an animal.

 

[rubyness]

Once I was early to a lecture, getting there before the sign in sheet was put out. When they finally put it out there was a long line, so I figured I would wait until the end of lecture to sign it. Well, they took the sheet away before the end, and when I went to the dept. office to sign the sheet the lady wouldn't let me and told me that I couldn't prove my story was true.

What the hell? Is this a federal trial? She finally wrote next to my name on the sheet "was late". That was all I could get out of her. These people are sick.

Do you think I went to med school so I could make up lies and fairy tales to tell secretaries? They treat us like fugitives and kindergarteners.

 

[irlandesa]

the current GYN dept. secretary refused to give me the case list for this week after my intern had sent me down to get it. After I said hello, how are you (she knows who I am and I was wearing my name badge) and asked very nicely, she informed me that "I already gave another student a copy so she should have it for you." Like it would have killed her to let me borrow a piece of paper so I could take 1 minute to xerox it. I didn't want to fight, so I said, ah, yes, the PA student in our group must have it, thanks. She replied with "Yeah, SHE really has got it together!" now I have a case on Tuesday and since tomorrow is a holiday and I don't have the patient's name (which the PA student conveniently failed to tell me when she paged me about the case list later on), I have no way to find the H & P and am bound to get chewed out by my Chief Resident on Tuesday. thanks a bunch ladies!

We share the OB lounge/locker area with custodial staff who work in the area, and on Friday this woman in work scrubs walks in and says "you should probably find some place else to study, I'm gonna watch TV now." I told her I would move over to the couch so she could see the TV and I wouldn't bother her, but she was not satisfied and directed me to what turned out to be a non-existent lounge. Once again, wanting to be nice in case she was a nurse who would grade me, I left, but when I came back 2.5 hours later, she was STILL watching TV with what turned out to be one of her fellow custodial colleagues, and when I stepped into the call room to take a nap, I STILL heard her cackling at some stupid TV show when I woke up an hour later. That's right, she is apparently allowed to occupy the room all day watching TV instead of doing her job while med students are not allowed to study in the area (of course no one ever told us this).

 

[MD'05]

I can't believe how the custodial staff at some hospitals get by with recording hours on their time card that they don't work. They might be making $15 an hour, but by the time they record 80 - 100 hours per week, they are making $75,000 per year. Not a large sum of money, but if everyone on staff does this, it begins to add up.

There was a guy that used to come into the resident's lounge (used by medical students) at 6 am and sleep until 8 am everyday. I am sure that he was recording the hours as work hours. I didn't rat him out because he didn't give me any ****.

If your hospital is in the same financial trouble as the hospitals that I rotate through, I am sure upper management would love to know about these kinds of abuses. Drop the dime AFTER you are sure that you will no longer be rotating there. At least you'll make the hag's life a little more difficult.

 

[moia]

I have even better stories...the patient who told me "that girl has been washing that same bit of floor since I woke up"..it was seven at night and when I had a closer look the housekeeper was actually asleep leaning on the mop.
Just had decompression and discotomy because patient care assistant was way tooo tired to turn the patient at the same time I turned...turning 300 lbs when you are expecting half that = herniated disc
Having to make aids wear pagers because they literally disappear for hours(watching television)only to have them grieve it through the union because it was "disrespectful"...yup they won..still can't find them and now can't page them..


Having aid tell you to shut up,go away,or my favorite..you can't make me do nothing cause thats discrimination....huh? doing the job you applied for and are getting a pretty fine paycheck for is now discrimination...

Dueling arrests and a secretary who won't answer the phone because "why should I..it will just be for one of you nurses anyway"

Lab tech calling for NSQ...the dreaded non sufficient quantity despite the fact you drew the blood from an artline and you know it was full...
All day and all night these running battles go on until you need a sick day just to prevent you from lining all these people up and screaming at them.

My favorite to date...PAYDAY
him:I didn't see your name on the schedule so I didn't put your hours in so you won't be getting paid...
me: how did this happen?
him: well you should have told me you were working..
me: but all my hours are right here on the schedule with everybody else..right here
him: wow can't believe I missed it..
me: well how do I get paid...
him: I don't know call payroll....
...meeting with manager..
why did you ask payroll to pay you?
I thought thats what payroll did.
You have to ask permission from my clerk to ask for my permission before you can ask payroll to pay you
OH
payroll said you were upset about not getting paid and they want an apology .
Apology for what?
You didn't have any right to be visibly upset about not getting paid when you were talking to payroll.
I have to apologize for being upset?
NO..you have to apologize for being VISIBlY upset in the payroll office...you should have been more respectful of payrolls feelings...they were very upset

About what?
They were upset because YOU MADE them upset by being upset about not getting paid.

I'm sorry????

week later
manager, human resources, union, me
we are all here to talk about why you made payroll upset about not getting paid
HUH?
union..we will grieve we will grieve..(repeat for 30 minutes in slow whispered monotone)
Here is the letter we are putting in your file that says we gave you a verbal counselling.....
um how come if it's a verbal counsel I have a written note?
union: oooh we are really gonna grieve now..you just wait and watch
the letter is to explain the verbal so there is a written record of the verbal counselling
My memory is pretty good I think you can skip the letter

Is this how you upset Payroll? because we can see you are upset and this is upsetting us

whatever...my head hurts
Do you need to see occupational health?
union: you need to file an incident report and file for workmens compensation because they gave you a headache...
I am already on disability
EVERYONE: when? WHY? why didn't you say something?Why are you at work? Who do you work for?
well I had a meeting with everyone in this room a week ago when I told you I was going for surgery for my back injury and I would be off for 3 months according to disability.The blond sitting right beside you...well I work for her
EVERYONE: oh right...what was your first and last name again?

Union;why don't you have compensation
you said I couldn't file because I didn't report the injury the day it happened and my symptoms were gradual not acute.
union: file now
okay
compensation: we would love to help you but there is no compensation for a back injury for repetitive lifting and turning with gradual to acute symptoms....we only have that category for wrists and knees. And you can't have sciatica on the left..only on the right.
oh
union: appeal
but the category doesn't exist
union: we are appealing anyway
oh

All these people are management...they are making real money

We could easily fire half of them and never even notice they were gone.
We could use their salaries to give all of us a raise and I bet we would all be much happier and wouldn't ever be VISIBlY upset anymore.


It's amazing any of us have any time to actually spend at the bedside considering the crap we need to wade through just to get there.

I bet we all have at least one example of being in a Kafkaesque management moment

 

[tubbs]

Moia,

that's a hilarious story. oh man, it sucks to be you and me, and every one of us clerks.

 

[kinetic]

I can't believe how the custodial staff at some hospitals get by with recording hours on their time card that they don't work. They might be making $15 an hour, but by the time they record 80 - 100 hours per week, they are making $75,000 per year. Not a large sum of money, but if everyone on staff does this, it begins to add up.

Hey, if I could make $75K mopping floors and sleeping for a few hours during the workday, I'm there. Much better than working 80 hours a week and getting sued, as well as giving up your 20s studying.


When I was a student, a nurse had collected all of the patient charts for the floor and was sitting around with them talking to another nurse. I was pre-rounding and needed one of the charts. I walked around them, peering at the charts -- and of course, those two fat-ass windbags ignored me and continued to blather about how hard they were working. Finally, I found the chart I needed, but it was directly under the elbow of one of those heifers. I said, "excuse me, may I have that chart please?" She continued to ignore me; even the other nurse was at least considerate enough to stop talking and look uncomfortable. I repeated my request and got nothing. So I took the chart and pulled as hard as I could. TIMMMMMMBEEEERRRRR!!!! Yeah! I didn't get in trouble, but if I had it woulda been worth it. (I gave her a fake sheepish "whoops" look and grinned apologetically. Then I skipped away, feeling happy as sunshine.)

 

[southerndoc]

yup they won..still can't find them and now can't page them..

Easy solutions... FIRE THEM!

Screw the unions... (I hate unions!)

 

[tubbs]

hahaha. way to go kinetic! that was hilarious.