Like I mentioned before, we've been crazy busy lately - not only do we have a huge influx of boarders and sick pets, but half our staff decided that now would be a good time to take their vacations. Now, there's a policy that no more than one person can take a vacation day at the same time - if you want that day off too, you have to find someone to cover you. If no one will cover for you, then you have to have it approved by Boss Vet. Not too complicated, right? Except that many many moons ago, everyone gave Boss Vet their vacation days and she approved all of them without actually looking at the dates. Henceforth, the shit hit the fan when everyone (including Boss Vet) realized that we were going to be working with a skeleton crew for the two busiest weeks of the year - well, actually only half of "everyone" cared, because the other half had already packed their bags and were getting the hell out of Dodge. Whoops.
The remainder of the staff consisted of a couple kennel people, a couple receptionists, and moi. This was essentially the veterinary equivalent of a miniature apocalypse, and the beginning of my slow descent into insanity.
I actually started crying on Saturday morning when the receptionist told me that the only kennel person with any shred of knowledge of lab or exam had just called off sick, thus leaving me all alone to run a full book of doctor appointments and tech appointments (scheduled for the same time slots) for the EIGHTH day in a row (I may have over-reacted a little, but I was low on sleep and high on caffeine). Also, I was working with Slow Vet, and while she is incredibly smart and cautious and thorough and she is my first choice for my own pets, it's hard to convince the clients her miraculous skills after they've been waiting for 50 minutes. It is physically impossible for one person to be responsible for getting a client in the room, going over estimates, gathering a history, getting vaccines ready, gathering samples, setting up and reading heartworms/fecals/ERDs/UAs/cytologies, holding pets for the exam, putting all the charges in the computer, doing paperwork and cleaning up, while simultaneously starting two more appointments AND answering phones without getting behind.
If I wouldn't have had my shiny clicky pen, I might have killed someone. I guard that thing with my life.
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2 comments:
Oh man, I think I *would* have killed somebody. Our morning receptionist was off the day after Christmas and she'll be off this Wednesday as well, which... whatever. But then one of our techs came in with vomiting sickness on the 26th because she knew it was going to be terribly busy and we had two chemo pets scheduled (we don't have a CBC machine, so they're done completely by hand, and it's just... time consuming, not to mention actually *giving* the chemo). She left as soon as chemo was over, so it was two of us, going crazy, trying not to turn homicidal. Whee!
ouch, I can't wait for the holidays to be over!
We sent out all our bloodwork until recently, and I remember one time the lab's CBC machines were down while we were waiting for stat bloodwork for a critical case...the vet called in a begged the lab techs to find someone in the entire place who would do it by hand, but no one there had even heard of doing it that way (?). So, on the bright side, it's a good skill to have :)
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