Newbie

I recently landed a great job at a local clinic. Best money I've made since I've arrived here in town. But it's not the money that will keep me at a job. I gotta like the job itself. And luckily I like it at the clinic. Though some things have made me sit up and take notice. Some things that start me thinking about this small town and the townites that dwell here.

The clinic is for low income and uninsured. Everyone smiles there, every one says hi, when walking down the halls. Even the poor people that have come for care of various problems, smile at me. We even have a methodone clinic. So you could imagine the people I see everyday. This job gives me a sense of accomplishment. I do all the prescriptions that come into our office. It's my job to make sure the rx gets to the doctor and the rx gets back to the pharmacy within 72 hours. I'm the essential link to the patients and their meds. I've learned a lot about different drugs and what kind of diagnosis negates these drugs. There are a lot of people on anti-depressants in this small town. A lot of young girls with clymidia and various STDs....(very alarming) roaming the streets of this small town. Scares me to think these girls have no self respect and no support systems, just out having unprotected sex with just about anyone who'll lay down with them. I feel sad for these girls. But I guess that's the nature of the beast, when you're bored and there's nothing else to do in a small town and with an overactive libido, God knows who these girls are sleeping with. I've learned a lot about the mentality of this town so far and it's fascinating. Maybe I should go into psychiatry.....hummmmm......anyway....

I've also learned some of my coworkers personalities and quirks.

Just this week, my boss, a great lady, quite young, had a "head honcho" meeting and the RX came up. Some of the doctors' said they want those rx to them in 12 hours! My boss said, "it's just not possible", coming to the aid of her newbie rx employee. And yes, I'm the only one who does it. Funny how they pick the "hippie chick" to do the prescriptions....LOL. Tickles me to no end. Anyway, I get about 60-75 prescriptions a day. Friday's and Monday's are the worst. Sometimes I see 100-125 prescriptions in any given Friday or Monday. All the pharmacists are clamoring to get these rx done before the weekend and whoever doesn't get their stuff on Friday, their clamoring to get it come Monday morning. So I dread Fridays and Mondays. It's nice to know my boss is sticking up for me.

I recently had an rx come through for a man of Mexican decent for viagra, twice now. I just happened to fly by the nurses station when I hear my buddy, we'll call her Big Mama, says, "this poor guy. He keeps asking for this viagra and he keeps getting denied." I glance down at the rx and the name. It's the same guy. I felt bad for him because we keep ruining his weekends with these denials. I could just imagine, he's gonna get all depressed cuz he can't have his viagra, so he'll go see one of our psychologists on staff, we'll call him Dr. Mellow, and be prescribed Paxil or something else for depression. And you know those pills have a lot of sexual side effects, so he'll get even more bummed out and not be able to perform. Or maybe they'll put him on anti-anxiety pills, that have gnarly sexual side effects, and he'll feel good, go out, try to find a willing partner, and when the piping fails, think he's gonna be happy about it? No...not me....it's a vicious cycle. Poor guy.

Being an almost totally new department and staff, we make mistakes. When I first started doing the RX, I had a back up of about 200 prescriptions that were at various stages of the 72 hour period. I had a lot to catch up on when this part of my job was handed to me. (A whole 4 days into my job might I add!) So I passed out a few Rx's with just a matter of hours left on them to get back to the pharmacy. Needless to say, some of the doctors' were pissed. One in particular, we'll call her Ms. Princess. Ms. Princess is not a doctor, but a RN. She has this way about her. She doesn't exactly yell at you when she's pissed off. She talks down to you in a mono tone voice and she never stops talking. She talks over you, interrupts you, makes you frustrated and you feel as though she's not listening. Which she's not. So whenever her assigned doctor, which happens to be Dr. Mellow, isn't at the clinic, all of his patient's prescriptions have to go to her. For some unknown reason, she seems to think that I only get her patient's rx's....not everyone else's in the clinic! She pulled a hissy fit at the department's window one day to one of my co-workers. Ms. Princess made my coworker cry! I couldn't believe it. So now because of that incident, I have to take her rx's directly to her, before the ink dries on the fax! Oh yeah, I got time for that shit. I have to coddle Ms. Princess and treat her differently then everyone else, because she threw that hissy fit. And the kicker? Her doctor, Dr. Mellow, knows that I have a ton of rx to get out and has no problem if his get out with the rest of them. But when he's not there, oh lordy! It's all about her.

Now being a newbie, I listen to conversations that are going on around me as I search for charts within the clinic. I do this because our department gets a lot of the brunt of understructures failures. I like to hear the "buzz" about our department so I can go back and tell my coworkers what the latest bitch is about within the clinic, so we can all be prepared and get our shit together. I've gathered that a lot of times, patients are seen without charts. Actually I think we had 4 in the last week. So not really that bad. But if you listen to the nurses and the doctors, it's ALL the time. Just a tad exaggeration. For example: I'm walking down the hall, collecting charts, and I overhear a nurse, we'll call her PITA. (short for Pain in the Ass) "One of those people in the Medical Records department isn't doing their fucking job! Their supposed to pull the charts when I request them!" Complaining to a doctor, no less. I understand she's probably getting heat from the powers that be, but we always pull a chart from where ever it might be for an appointment. I get back to the department and everyone is frantically looking for this chart. The one PITA had requested. Seven people looking for one chart all over the clinic. Time is ticking by, the tension is building, the patient is in the room with the doctor, frustration starts to fall over my coworker's faces. This notion hits my head, go look up front in reception. I go trotting off to the front desk. There laying BETWEEN two receptionists, on the very top of their desk, the illusive PITA chart lays there. I snatch it up and trot it back to the department. With the relief of all my coworkers and a few loud speaker pages to the ones out and frantically searching, all is well once again in medical records. But this is a daily occurrence, sometimes several times a day. Only to find the illusive charts floating somewhere between reception and the nursing staff. If only someone, anyone working that department would just open their eyes before they call Medical Records and send 7 people into a frenzy. But then we'd live in a perfect world wouldn't we?

As my Aunt used to say, "Open your eyes instead of your mouth." Words to live by, I'd say.

Now comes "Browneyes". This woman is a piece of work. I guess there's one in every company. I heard her whining on the phone to someone about how she's bogged down with charts and she doesn't know what to do. She once said to me, when I first started working there, "you look familiar"....no, not me. I guess I just have that type of face. Cuz she wasn't familiar to me in anyway. Well I guess she got wind of Ms. Princess's rx treatment and came to the window to whine at someone. She wanted to be treated like Ms. Princess. She started complaining about how her department never gets their charts when they need them, (keep in mind she's not writing prescriptions.) and she's upset. Her department seems to want the charts that are out for appointments the day of or the day before. So in short, most of the charts she wants are still in the hands of the doctors. She even added on another department isn't getting the charts they need and that we should "just take the charts" out of the hands of the doctors, giving them to her and the other department for just "10 minutes". I guess "10 minutes" is short for a few hours.....cuz it's never only 10 minutes. Priorities babe, priorities and you're not a priority. Sorry. Doctor's, nurses, and appointments take president over you and your department. I don't make the rules, I just play by them. I just thought, "wow, how very pompous of you". So this other department she added to her complaints was asked about getting the charts they needed. Turns out, that other department "Browneyes" was whining about, they didn't have a problem getting charts and realize that their charts will be seen after the doctors are finished with it. They had no complaints. Hummm....sounds like "Browneyes" was sticking her nose in where it didn't belong.

But you know what makes it all worth it? When Big Mama says to you, "you're doing a great job. I know nobody ever tells you that, but you are". I love Big Mama. And I like my boss and I get along with everyone in my department. I like it when our boss stands her ground and all of us as a department work together to get shit done. I've been waiting for a job like this for 3 flippin' years. Since I got to this little town. And they pay me really good. I think I'll be staying for a long long time. I'm breathing a big sigh of relief now, cuz it took alot for me to get here, to make sacrifices so I could stay in the area. It wasn't too long ago I was an unemployment check away from living in my mother's garage with two kids, back down south. I dealt with a gay Berkeley man with an underlying hatred toward women; a miserable woman who's only joy in life was to make other's miserable. Misery loves company, you know. And a delusional woman who was so out of whack, she thought swearing at her employees was okay. I've dealt with a famous company that treats their employees so bad that most injure themselves on the job cuz they can get more money from worker's comp. Another company that would only pay their "supervisors" eight dollars an hour, while they paid others' ten an hour under the table so that employee could still collect unemployment. This is a crazy town. And I'm learning it's not who you know but who you blow. Not me buddy. I'll quietly pursue my own interests over here in my corner of this small town. Plugging away on my bills, raisin' my kids and enjoying my life. I'm not worried about all these superficial people and their issues. I'm not a gossip hound and I prefer to be anonymous. I'll just sit back and watch for now. But one day, people will know my name. And I'll be the one getting blown! LOL. Have a great day ya'll.