5th June (Sunday) - Look at how time flies. I've been moaning on how time seems to creep slowly, but now we're in June. Two more months and I'll be entering my 2 years of working life.
It has been more than a year that I had stayed in one place, and human nature had never ceased to amaze me. What you learnt in school is pretty standard, you know, like honesty is the best virtue, treat people kind and they will be kind back to you. How wrong I was when I first stepped into the working world back then, all fresh and naive, like a newly-hatched baby chick. Human nature in the open is not what you learnt in school.
As mentioned above, human nature had never ceased to amaze me. I really dislike Fridays, because everything that goes wrong, mostly happens on a Friday, for me... I was in my doctor's room, making coffee for him when I heard shoutings and thumpings. Despite the mug burning my fingers, I stepped out a little from the doorway and saw this middle-aged guy yelling like a madman at the cashier. Everyone, and I do mean, everyone - patients, doctors, their assistants, EVERYBODY is staring at him. He was apparently yelling about his medications being slow. Sigh, you know, we had always explained again and again that our pharmacy takes time to process the charges. Our cashier is super efficient, he keys in the doctor's charges and that's it, he waits for the pharmacy to key in theirs and then he can collect the payment. Pity some people just don't get our process, even though they are old patients. I encountered many who claimed they are follow up patients hence they don't have to register but just waltz in to see the doctor. Sorry, same rules apply. Register first, get your sticker, pass it to the clinic girls, sit down and wait for your queue, see the doctor, wait for payment or medications. The 'best' part of the whole drama, people who are waiting for their medications for 30 minutes did not even complain. This guy, according to my colleague who witnessed the whole thing, did not even waited long. She helped faxed his medication prescription, placed it on the metal tray and our cashier explained to the man, who immediately burst out. And he actually yelled that he's doing everyone a favour, which again, caused everyone to stare at him. My goodness, why are all patients acting like this? I know that my doctor said that it's because they are sick, but I don't think being sick gives you a reason to act like this, and this guy is actually a very healthy guy who came for a yearly health check up. I recall there was a time I had a really bad dengue till I collapsed and was pretty weak, and I did a surgery under local anaesthesia, and most recently I sprained my leg quite bad til I couldn't run, but walk real slow. And I had never yell at people despite the service is slow.
It's sad but nowadays people just don't give a darn about basic human rights anymore. There was an incident where a doctor and I got yelled by the patient's son. The scenario was like this: Mom undergone spine surgery and is required for follow up. Family brought her in the early morning to see four doctors, three of them are at the top and our doctor is at the bottom. Her appointment says it's in the morning, but the family all went up to see the other doctors since they are all in the same floor. Fine, it's acceptable. In between though, they have to pick up their three kids, so by the time they came back, it's already past two. Our doctor have no clinic, but they yelled like maniacs and attacked the clinic girl with verbal abuses, plus the next door doctor and me, even though we are both innocent parties who have no idea what is going on. He yelled that he have to pick up the kids from school, about how they have to rush back home etc etc. Look here, when an appointment is given to you, you are the one who choose the time to suits your need. You cannot give excuses like that as though we were the one who forced you to take that date. Those things we can still take it, but the one that is most unforgivable is the way he talked to our doctor. "My wife and I run our own business to earn money, we pay your thousands to fix our mom, so you should be the one to care for her. Not us. You are a stupid, brainless doctor, and so is your nurse over there."
!!!!!
How dare you! You leave my doctor and me out of this! How could you even say that?! And he even added, "It's not our problem to take care of my mom. We paid you the money right? So doctor, you should be the one to take care of her."
!!!!!
Terrible, yes? Can't believe there are these type of people around. No wonder my clinical instructor once told me when I was a student, "Humans are not humans anymore, they are acting like hooligans." These people think doctors and nurses, especially nurses, are like slaves, nice to step on. They forget that we too, are human beings like them. We also have the right to be respected as a basic human being, not some slave or machine.
Now whenever I go to work, I always pray to Mary, Mother of God, that the day will be a good day. I know the day won't be as smooth as a straight line, but at least, please don't let the patients do this to us. Amen to that.
