The interview

Well the interview went well. The woman on the phone didn’t know what she was talking about though, Patient Care Technology won’t kick off for months and there is no need for a director right now but they do want me as an instructor. They took me on a tour of the college and it is a fine facility. Every room has a computer with the internet and an overhead projector.

A woman introduced me to the staff and next Friday I make my “audition” I teach for 10 - 15 minutes on any subject at any level, this is my forte so I’m not at all worried about it. My daughter knows me better than most people and she said “Oh God, do they know what they are in for?”

I told her that I’d tone it down for the instructors but go back to my normal self for the students. It looks like a good place to work with a lot of opportunities for advancement. I just know that I would be so good at this and make a lasting impression on young students entering the medical field, to impart my knowledge of patient care.

That there is a real difference between a medical assistant and a really good medical assistant. The only thing that might shoot me down is my past criminal record, but it was 38 years ago when I was 17 years old. I hope they take that into consideration, they can drug test me now all they wish, I’m clean. I can really touch a lot of lives if I get this position. So…. I’m asking for prayers in this please.

Sending prayers Bullfrog, but I don't think you will need them either.

Yeah, what they all said. What are the odds that you just randomly decide on that day and time, to call up Lamar and ask about some instructor-type position, and they just happpen to have something, and you just happen to get asked to come in for an interview...

I don't exactly think it was all coinky-dink, Dear Pal. I tend to believe it was a little more than that workin' here. :[IMG]/confused

Just go, be yourself!!

I have Lamar's things all ready to go, this was Kaplan College over by Books a Million. It's a lot bigger than I thought and nicer than Lamar. I could tell that the staff liked me but they did say that an outside company does the background check and makes that decision, they have nothing to do with it.

My daughter said "C'mon Dad, how many college professors don't have an old drug charge from the 70's?" As I said, I was 17 and it will have been 38 years ago by the time I retire, but still it could knock me out of the water. I would be such a good fit here, they teach many subjects one of which is a medical assistant. It is a five month course and it's all pretty basic which would give me the time to polish them into good assistants.

My "audition" will be in front of the staff and I was thinking about it last night. I can do anything that I want and I'm working on it. I'm welcoming the students to the first day of class. I have an unorthodox, casual method of teaching that I think people can understand and relate to.

After the regular introductions, the welcome and thank you's, I tell them that we are going to give them the knowledge, skills and abilities to become a medical assistant, but if you participate, apply your knowledge and your own individual compassion, I'll make you a really good medical assistant.

"How many of you have ever been to a doctor's office?" (count every finger in the room)

"All of us, now how many of you have ever left with a less than satisfied feeling about that visit?" ( you fish the answers out of them, the waiting of course until someone mentions "The way that I was treated by the staff." BINGO.

"We all have felt ignored, aloof assistants who had no compassion at all, they pump up the blood pressure cuff until your fingers go numb, then deflate the cuff so fast you know there is no way they could have gotten an accurate reading. They then scribble down the number without telling you anything, stick a thermometer in your mouth, etc and hurry out of the room.

Patient care is all about the care.

The CARE word is what is so necessary to any customer service job. Maybe banking isn't as important to customers as health/life care but still----I have seen it down through the years....Look the customer in the eyes, even if you're not interested in them, fake it, make them think you are and you know what----next thing you know, you will be interested. It used to drive me nuts when I would hear other employees use the little 3 letter acronyms that we used behind the scenes--you know the customer has no idea what a SCG or PGP is but they didn't want to look dumb so they'd just let the person go on blabbering away and not understanding a bit of what he said. If I didn't act like I cared about what I was doing for them or selling them, then they didn't realize there was a reason for them to care about keeping up their responsibilities.

I guess it goes both ways. I'll never forget the couple who came to a Home Equity closing at the bank (Chase). The paperwork is very much like closing on a mortgage. We were always instructed to make sure the customer understood what they were signing so I really tried my best to explain stuff, ask if I was making sense and give them a chance to ask questions, before I let them sign. So here's this couple, both dressed to the nines, him in a suit, white shirt and tie---very much the business man. I had hardly begun when his cell phone rang. Anyone else would have clicked it off and let it take a message. Not him, he took out the phone and began to talk. I stopped talking (I do stop once in a while) and waited for him. She reached over and pulled on his jacket. He turned and said to us, "Continue on, I don't have time for this." So with my ears steaming, I continued the thing, knowing she didn't understand much. She would poke him and point where he needed to sign and he did. He never said anything to me when we were done. She thanked me and he continued talking on his phone as he walked out the door, not even holding the door for his wife. Guess who would be the first person to come in ranting if something happened later that he didn't know about because he didn't pay any attention.

Oh another time comes to mind. The assistant managers were in a meeting downtown and the head guy says, "What is it that our bank has that no other bank has to offer." There was this deafening silence. I raised my hand and said, "Me." There was a roar of laughter and I felt like a fool for a moment until the head guy says, "Yes, Esther is the only one here who gets it."

So I'd better give the customer/patient a reason to remember me and my company and it had better be a good one. You know they blabber all over when they've had a bad experience but not so apt to tell about a good one.

That's exactly what my lesson is going to be on Esther. I thought about it last night. My students need to know that the patient is the reason for their being at work, not an interruption of their day. A patient knows through unspoken signals if you really care about them or are just going through the motions.

Think about it, if I get the job I'll be teaching medical assistants. They are the first ones that you meet at the doctor's office. The lady at the window takes your information and your copay, but the assistant is the face of the office. She is the one who takes you back and weighs you, takes your vital signs and the information as to why you came in. It only takes a few minutes but if she is indifferent, rude or uncaring it makes the whole visit unpleasant.

Other than the injury or illness that brings a patient into a doctors office, why does the visit itself have to be so unpleasant? It doesn't if you get the right people who were trained properly. Every person walking through those doors are living, breathing people with fears and anxieties. They came there because they have a medical problem. Some of them are elderly and their condition is terminal. If you enter this field just for the money, don't. Compassion is a really big part of patient care, anyone can take vital signs.