Bedside Manners: Distractable Doctors – Get Their Head in the Game by Patricia L Raymond, MD, FACP, FACG
Image by Seth Thompson CC
It could be worse…my hair could be on fire.
For the multitudes following my adventures on JNJ: you may have noticed that I dropped from the radar screen for a month. Or two. I thank you for noticing. Let’s do lunch. I’ll buy.
So where’d I disappear to? It was just life…getting in the way of medicine and JNJ merriment. Over the last two months I have closed my solo gastroenterology practice and rejoined an excellent G.I. group (good fortune in these interesting economic times), sold my home (hurrah- > 1 year on market) and downsized to a petite condo on the Chesapeake Bay that is just completing its renovation with all the details, calls, and really somewhat fun troubleshooting that remodeling entails. I’ve been distracted by disruptions in both my practice and home lives. But it could have been worse; my hair could have been on fire.
In fact, instead of merely being on fire, my head should have exploded. According to a worksheet on life stressors available here , my personal score of 293 is a whopper…a score of 150 renders a 50% chance of stress related illness, and over 300 gives a 90% likelihood. Yeow. Cue sound effect of slack being cut for myself.
All the while, I was still going in to the office or hospital, seeing patients, doing procedures, making calls, and following accounts receivable. And trying hard to pay attention to and interact well with my nurses, staff, and patients.
A lot of times your doctors and colleagues will come to work with a bunch of other debris trailing them. The visual: Pig Pen from the Charlie Brown comic strips. In addition to work, financial, and home life discord, there may be marital and health issues as well. And this trailing detritus will get in the way both of focused medical care and will influence their interactions with you. It’s up to you to get our metaphorically flaming heads in the game—
I gotta get my, get my head in the game
You gotta get your, get your, get your, get your head in the game
My mind, still distractible, shoots to the impossibly adorable, and yes, sadly young enough to be my son, Zac Efron in High School Musical. Yum.
Wait. I’m back. I gotta get my head in the game.
The best person I know at getting and keeping my head in the game is my office nurse Debbie. Debbie is very much like a border collie, but in a really good way. With no barking or nipping, she calmly has gotten me to focus over the past few months – letting me know when I have brief off time for those non-medical calls that need be made, standing quietly in the doorway of an exam room or my office when it’s time to get a move on. She is a master of my universe on Tuesdays, the still center of my turning world to paraphrase TS Elliot.
And my commitment to Deb? To try to keep my head in the game when working with her; to allow her the lead on where and when I’m supposed to be for the entire day in the office. I am in her hands.
Should you be working with a distractible, overstressed physician or colleague, we need your help to get our heads in the game. Get our attention, then take charge so that we can just focus on the work, knowing that you will safely guide us through our day.
Best way to get our attention? Perhaps you can set our hair on fire.
In the coming months, we’ll take on the adventure of training your misbehaving medical puppy. Meanwhile, share your fun, weird, and scary physician interaction stories with me, via JNJ or tweet me at http://twitter.com/PatriciaRaymond. With your permission, we’ll discuss the scenario, grin at the medical antics, and try to figure out where we could have influenced the outcome to a win for both sides. Meanwhile, you can catch up with prior articles in this series:
I Spy With My Little Eye JNJ January 2009
Chronic Cranky Caregiver JNJ February 2009
CFJT: Curb Your Docs JNJ March 2009
Family Adventures JNJ April 2009
Follow Dr Pat @:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/PatriciaRaymond
Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciaraymond
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/patricia.raymond
©2009 Patricia Raymond
Tags: Bedside Manners, Dr. Patricia Raymond, Great Nurses, Head on Fire