Woohoo!
I got it.
I cannot tell you how much the wait has been preying on my mind.
I had a suspicion who my competition was but it was never confirmed until Friday. This was a 6 day numerologically which makes sense as a date on which I would be appointed. 3+1+1+1 (3/11/2017). As far as I am aware the number 6 is a harmonious number which represents caring healing protecting teaching. It's the basis upon which community functions and works together.
The service manager started explaining why there was a delay and how much they appreciated what I'd done. Being on the downswing of doubt my first thoughts were oh no, waiting for the but...
Then she suddenly said, "So we'd like you to carry on in the position permanently."
Lol...took me so by surprise that it was a few seconds before I understood and delight hit my brain and body. Yay! It was then that I realised how much it meant to me.
She changed the subject and turned to my opponent. She wandered how we could make it less of a blow, sweeten the outlook as this person had a wealth of knowledge (as do all of the physiologists) that we should tap into. On contemplating it now, I think she was hinting at a 2IC to free me up to do more managerial stuff than clinical stuff. I'll enroll on a management course to upskill.
The service manager and I then moved onto employing, on a six month contract, two trainees who want to get into sleep. It seems so silly to have eager beavers ready to do this, without giving them a chance to do so. Waikato Hospital is a teaching hospital, so why not teach sleep? We'd briefly discussed this previously.
While talking things through in a logical way, I was so excited I almost bust a gut sitting still.
Once she'd spoken to my colleague who'd also applied, spoke to the rest of the staff. Richard tells me that they were over the moon, so much so that one of them delivered an impromptu speech about how positive he feels, how much he loves coming to work and what a difference having me in charge has made to his life. He congratulated the service manager on making a very good and wise choice! Richard said all of them were almost in tears they were so happy.
I've not had so many hugs in a long while. Each person hugging me several times, doing a little dance of joy, quietly of course, cos we didn't want to compound the other lady's misery by seeming too jubilant.
You have no idea how much that means to me - I am so very humbled. I have so much respect for every single one of them, their eagerness, their positivity, their go getting attitude and their flexibility in following my mad schemes.
*****
The bigger picture is that all our staff are valuable. We should make them all feel so. In the coming weeks it is my job to find out what they'd like to do with regard to upskilling, as well as do all the appraisals and jump their salary banding.
I've recently done an appraisal of one of them who is currently training staff at night. Because of this he's been given jump in salary, which is well deserved.
*****
The job description of the HCA (health care assistant) who has very specialised knowledge, is in the process of being changed to support sleep technician. It is taking a while for the remuneration specialist at the hospital to get it together - overworked and underpaid as is everybody. The Union guy, who negotiated the Collective Agreement for the Clinical Physiologists so that we get paid properly, is involved because I needed his knowledge and expertise. He works part time for the Union but his normal job is that of an employment solicitor. He is amazingly helpful and always available.
The upside of this is that, having brought it to the attention of the Union, other sleep laboratories around New Zealand have agreed that they face the same dilemma. Our HCAs need to be acknowledged for their incredible contribution to what we do as a team.
He has offered to, if the District Health Board waivers, draft an individual employment agreement for her, bring her under the wing of the Apex Union that the Clinical Physiologists belong to. She is currently with the Nurses Union and has been the top of her automatic salary upgrading for years. When we have a new collective agreement (due for negotiation end 2018 for 2019), support sleep technicians will be part of the collective agreement. She will basically be the guinea pig to bring this to fruition. This will give them the chance to upskill further and have the ability to climb pay levels like we do.
Wow - it is quite an achievement if we get it right.
*****
We are moving things around in the unit again.
I currently have my office in a very large room that has all the filing drawers and the spare machines/equipment - I don't really care where I sit, as long as it has a desk and I am comfortable. But its proving not to be practical as when I have a meeting people are walking in and out, which is not great if it's a private meeting.
We are slowly going paper free. We've been scanning all our patients' charts onto the clinical work station. Paper work has always been such a pain in the butt. We've had three volunteers for years, filing, getting notes out for clinics, stuffing envelopes, etc. They've been such a godsend. But as we move away from paperwork, there is less and less for them to do. We're not quite yet at the place where we do not need their help. These volunteers are an amazing part of the hospital and as such are very valued.
We were all kind of feeling like we were not getting anywhere, so on Thursday I took an hour out of my busy schedule and moved files around and in the end we had two empty four drawer filing cabinets. Who knew we could get so excited to see this progress! These cabinets were snapped up by another department on Friday.
I met up with the team leader of inventories last week and we decided that my current office, once all the filing cabinets are gone, would be perfect for our stock room which is currently bulging at the seams and spilling out into the unit with stock stored all over the place, stuffed in cupboards, etc. It is not great. As we want them to scan and audit the amount of consumables and equipment that we go through, we need to tidy it up so they can do so. This will help us out too. I will swap offices and move into the smaller room.
So the property and infrastructure people are meeting with me next week to discuss the move and what we need. I don't think the shelving in the current tiny stock room is enough.
*****
We are also in the process of evaluating new machines that have inbuilt modems, thus meaning we can access our patients' machines without the necessity of them coming in to the hospital as parking is always a problem and many of our patients live hours away. It meant endless meetings with procurement, Biomed and Infection Control.
We are now in the final stages and will be running trials with patients over the next two weeks. Once we have their evaluation we will choose the machine and therefore manufacturer.
It is very exciting. But the downside is that I am having to delve into the world of computer geekness and legal stuff. We have meeting after meeting thrashing out the privacy, information governance and legalities. I actually think I am getting the hang of it now.
Lol...I can now speak legalese, computerlese and info govlese.
Once all of these changes are in place, we can then focus wholeheartedly on what we are employed to do and that is concentrate on our patients.
I've only touched on the tip of the iceberg that has been the last four months and goes on into the future.
It's been an amazing journey of self discovery for me.
May we go from strength to strength.
I got it.
I cannot tell you how much the wait has been preying on my mind.
I had a suspicion who my competition was but it was never confirmed until Friday. This was a 6 day numerologically which makes sense as a date on which I would be appointed. 3+1+1+1 (3/11/2017). As far as I am aware the number 6 is a harmonious number which represents caring healing protecting teaching. It's the basis upon which community functions and works together.
The service manager started explaining why there was a delay and how much they appreciated what I'd done. Being on the downswing of doubt my first thoughts were oh no, waiting for the but...
Then she suddenly said, "So we'd like you to carry on in the position permanently."
Lol...took me so by surprise that it was a few seconds before I understood and delight hit my brain and body. Yay! It was then that I realised how much it meant to me.
She changed the subject and turned to my opponent. She wandered how we could make it less of a blow, sweeten the outlook as this person had a wealth of knowledge (as do all of the physiologists) that we should tap into. On contemplating it now, I think she was hinting at a 2IC to free me up to do more managerial stuff than clinical stuff. I'll enroll on a management course to upskill.
The service manager and I then moved onto employing, on a six month contract, two trainees who want to get into sleep. It seems so silly to have eager beavers ready to do this, without giving them a chance to do so. Waikato Hospital is a teaching hospital, so why not teach sleep? We'd briefly discussed this previously.
While talking things through in a logical way, I was so excited I almost bust a gut sitting still.
Once she'd spoken to my colleague who'd also applied, spoke to the rest of the staff. Richard tells me that they were over the moon, so much so that one of them delivered an impromptu speech about how positive he feels, how much he loves coming to work and what a difference having me in charge has made to his life. He congratulated the service manager on making a very good and wise choice! Richard said all of them were almost in tears they were so happy.
I've not had so many hugs in a long while. Each person hugging me several times, doing a little dance of joy, quietly of course, cos we didn't want to compound the other lady's misery by seeming too jubilant.
You have no idea how much that means to me - I am so very humbled. I have so much respect for every single one of them, their eagerness, their positivity, their go getting attitude and their flexibility in following my mad schemes.
*****
The bigger picture is that all our staff are valuable. We should make them all feel so. In the coming weeks it is my job to find out what they'd like to do with regard to upskilling, as well as do all the appraisals and jump their salary banding.
I've recently done an appraisal of one of them who is currently training staff at night. Because of this he's been given jump in salary, which is well deserved.
*****
The job description of the HCA (health care assistant) who has very specialised knowledge, is in the process of being changed to support sleep technician. It is taking a while for the remuneration specialist at the hospital to get it together - overworked and underpaid as is everybody. The Union guy, who negotiated the Collective Agreement for the Clinical Physiologists so that we get paid properly, is involved because I needed his knowledge and expertise. He works part time for the Union but his normal job is that of an employment solicitor. He is amazingly helpful and always available.
The upside of this is that, having brought it to the attention of the Union, other sleep laboratories around New Zealand have agreed that they face the same dilemma. Our HCAs need to be acknowledged for their incredible contribution to what we do as a team.
He has offered to, if the District Health Board waivers, draft an individual employment agreement for her, bring her under the wing of the Apex Union that the Clinical Physiologists belong to. She is currently with the Nurses Union and has been the top of her automatic salary upgrading for years. When we have a new collective agreement (due for negotiation end 2018 for 2019), support sleep technicians will be part of the collective agreement. She will basically be the guinea pig to bring this to fruition. This will give them the chance to upskill further and have the ability to climb pay levels like we do.
Wow - it is quite an achievement if we get it right.
*****
We are moving things around in the unit again.
I currently have my office in a very large room that has all the filing drawers and the spare machines/equipment - I don't really care where I sit, as long as it has a desk and I am comfortable. But its proving not to be practical as when I have a meeting people are walking in and out, which is not great if it's a private meeting.
We are slowly going paper free. We've been scanning all our patients' charts onto the clinical work station. Paper work has always been such a pain in the butt. We've had three volunteers for years, filing, getting notes out for clinics, stuffing envelopes, etc. They've been such a godsend. But as we move away from paperwork, there is less and less for them to do. We're not quite yet at the place where we do not need their help. These volunteers are an amazing part of the hospital and as such are very valued.
We were all kind of feeling like we were not getting anywhere, so on Thursday I took an hour out of my busy schedule and moved files around and in the end we had two empty four drawer filing cabinets. Who knew we could get so excited to see this progress! These cabinets were snapped up by another department on Friday.
I met up with the team leader of inventories last week and we decided that my current office, once all the filing cabinets are gone, would be perfect for our stock room which is currently bulging at the seams and spilling out into the unit with stock stored all over the place, stuffed in cupboards, etc. It is not great. As we want them to scan and audit the amount of consumables and equipment that we go through, we need to tidy it up so they can do so. This will help us out too. I will swap offices and move into the smaller room.
So the property and infrastructure people are meeting with me next week to discuss the move and what we need. I don't think the shelving in the current tiny stock room is enough.
*****
We are also in the process of evaluating new machines that have inbuilt modems, thus meaning we can access our patients' machines without the necessity of them coming in to the hospital as parking is always a problem and many of our patients live hours away. It meant endless meetings with procurement, Biomed and Infection Control.
We are now in the final stages and will be running trials with patients over the next two weeks. Once we have their evaluation we will choose the machine and therefore manufacturer.
It is very exciting. But the downside is that I am having to delve into the world of computer geekness and legal stuff. We have meeting after meeting thrashing out the privacy, information governance and legalities. I actually think I am getting the hang of it now.
Lol...I can now speak legalese, computerlese and info govlese.
Once all of these changes are in place, we can then focus wholeheartedly on what we are employed to do and that is concentrate on our patients.
I've only touched on the tip of the iceberg that has been the last four months and goes on into the future.
It's been an amazing journey of self discovery for me.
May we go from strength to strength.
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