GAAAAHHH!!! Who, oh, WHY did I ever take a job as a clinical secretary??? Worst decision I ever made.
The doctors are pushy and self-important, the patients are pushy and pathetic, and I’m drowning in paperwork! Scheduling is insane, because as soon as I get a reasonable schedule worked out, the patient cancels, or the doctor cancels, and I have to do it all over again. Lots of fun when I’m working with a patient who is coming from the other side of the country and who has eight other appointments in the space of two days. I hate hospitals. I hate sick people. Actually, at this point, I hate people in general.
And I hate working in the city.
I am going to lose my mind. I’d quit, but there ain’t much else a BA in Bio can do. 'Specially if I want to get the hell out of the city. And the last thing I want is to start a whole NEW job that I hate.
It will be the death of me.
I promised to work here for 2 years. Not under contract, but I PROMISED. Which means I have to stay here until the summer after next. At which point I have to find another job, which isn’t going to be easy, since I don’t want to work in medicine, I don’t really want to do research, and I DEFINITELY don’t want to teach. I want to play with animals. But I have no experience and don’t know how to do anything (well, I’m getting very good at answering phones, but I HATE phones).
Also, I’m poor.
What’s a girl to do?
Kn(apologies if I’ve offended any doctors or patients. But that’s what you get for reading a Pit rant)ckers
Have you considered becoming an animal technician? You may not want to do research, but those of us who do research are desparately looking for intelligent people to handle the animals for us. With a BA in biology, this kind of job would be easy to get. Many labs are in cities (do you want out of cities in general, or just Boston?), but many major lab sites are out in the middle of nowhere (Cold Spring Harbor, Jackson Labs, etc…).
Kn*ckers: Don’t feel bad. At least you don’t work in billing.
I’m the “bitch” who gets yelled at by patients when the claim isn’t paid, or isn’t paid in the way it should have been. Or yelled at because the patient’s mother was supposed to pay it and the patient’s father got the bill. (This is for an 18-year-old patient, btw; the patient can pay the bill his damn self.)
I’ve had the spouse of a patient call me and threaten suicide in front of small children. I’ve also had the mother of a patient required to take her son in for medical care because of abuse. As far as she was concerned, the county made her take her son in, so let the county pay it! (Yes, there were injuries consistent with abuse in the reports.)
And the sad part is, I do this voluntarily. Fortunately, I don’t do customer-care anymore, so I don’t have the stress I used to. Thank God.
Don’t you like have a scheduling program? Maybe that’s a little tough, but you could at least have the doctor’s schedules and then input the patients. Not trying to be obnoxious, but am curious whether this is available.
Kn*ckers, you’re at a hospital in Boston? Which one?
I’ve either been a patient or employee at about half of them. I currently work at BWH. And although a good many doctors here are right bastards, some are quite nice.