Thank God for Doctors

I am incredibly fortunate because right now, I love my job. I even started full time this week and am working up front doing some of the receptionist work, and I still love it because it teaches me a different side of Medical Assisiting. Receptionists have to put up with a lot and they're asked such a huge range of questions, I think everyone should take a second and appreciate their local business receptionist. It's not just answering phones anymore! :)

Every job has it's irritants, though, and though I risk being dooced (for those of you who don't know, that means getting fired from your job for talking candidly about it on your blog) I think I should just list a few pointers so that the people I love will be better patients. Here are a list of my worktime pet peeves. If you do these, STOP.

1. When I call you back to go to your room and we stop at the scale, PLEASE do not let the words that come out of your mouth be, "Do I have to?" This is a question you can answer all on your own. Look at me. I'm nearly 8 months pregnant. If you refuse to stand on the scale I'm hardly going to pick you up and stand you on it and hold you there until you hold still. NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO. Will it really irritate all of us if you don't? Probably. And when you stand there and your weight comes up, you don't need to explain to me why you weigh that much. Here's a hint....I really don't care. Honestly, I don't.

2. If you are consistantly taking a medication, please know what it's called. I know that I should know the medications better than I do. But ask Allison, there's a few more than you can just memorize over the weekend. So please, when I'm verifying your medications, don't say, "Well what's that one for?" And PLEASE don't say, "Well, is that the little blue one?" You put them in your mouth and swallow them. PLEASE be responsible enough to know what they're called.

3. It might not be common knowledge to everyone, but keep this is mind for me. Normal blood pressure is 120\80 - 130\90. If I check your blood pressure and tell you it's 182\102, please don't say, "Well is that bad?" Yeah. It's bad. It totally blows. But, alongside this point, you also don't need to explain to me why your blood pressure is high. Why? Because I don't care. Explaining it to me isn't gonna help you.

4. Don't yell at your medical assistant and then act really sweet to the doctor. It's not a huge deal, but it's just kinda irritating. And here's a tip. You come to see the doctor, but the medical assistants keep the office running. And when the doctor comes out and tells us to set up your colonoscopy....you might want to wish you had been a little bit nicer. I'm not saying ANY MA would put you through a miserable experience because we feel like it, but the honest truth of it is, we could if we wanted to. So don't tempt us. :)

Again, this is not me complaining about my job. If every patient of every day did all this stuff, I'd still love it. But keep it in mind. It will keep your next doctor's appointment running that much smoother.