The Case of the Strained Staff
They’ve FINALLY hired someone but have had no time to train them and now the new hire is just getting in the way and disillusioned.
BY CARISSA DUNPHY
Shana was exhausted after a day with a full schedule, plus add-ons, at the clinic. She plopped onto the chair at the tech desk, “Thank God we are finally getting some relief tomorrow when the new hire starts, it’s got to have been — what — at least six months since we’ve had a full team?”
“Oh, at least!” Dr. Wyatt continued, “We are still short-handed and need to hire a second person, but I’ll take one over none! Even though Adam has never worked in optometry, I’m banking on the fact his last three years working at a chiropractor office will prove to be cross-functional.”
“I hope he can hit the ground running — we are still so strapped on manpower, no one can afford to slow down during clinic to train him properly,” Shana added.
“We need to balance the training amongst the departments since everyone is cross-trained.” Dr. Wyatt added, “Let all of the staff know to help where they can and let’s reconvene at the end of the week to see where we’re at.”
At the end of the week the two met again. “This week turned into a dumpster fire,” Shana said with a sigh.
“It couldn’t have gone that bad — my patient flow didn’t seem affected and nothing stood out to me,” Dr. Wyatt stated.
“While I’m glad to hear that, the rest of the team is drowning.” Shana added, “Our schedule is fully booked every day, leaving no time to do anything other than work with patients — I’m pretty sure we have near-to-no spherical contact trials and no one has been notified all week that their glasses have arrived.”
Dr. Wyatt took a deep breath, “Thank you for your honesty, and you have my word that we will address these things, but I was referring to how Adam’s week went…”
“Since you appreciated my honesty… Having him shadow us all — we literally kept tripping over him.” Shana concluded, “We were all hustling and in our zones and he was just in the way.”
“Was he actually shown how to do things — when will he be able to start working on his own?” Dr. Wyatt asked.
“He observed but wasn’t directly shown anything.” Shana continued, “He took a lot of notes and paid attention, but there wasn’t even time for him to ask questions.”
“Okay, well that’s a start, let’s have a quick all-staff meeting on Monday before clinic starts so we can align,” Dr. Wyatt said.
“That’s another thing…” Shana said with hesitation. “Adam mentioned that between the volume of patients and the lack of formal training, he was going to have to decide if this place is worth the stress.”
Dr. Wyatt was surprised, “I understand everyone is overwhelmed, but we are going to have to troubleshoot together to find a solution that works for us all. We cannot lose this great find, even before he gets his toes wet.”
“I absolutely agree — we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Shana concluded, “Let’s work on a plan on Monday, and hope that Adam shows up!”
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
How could Adam learn the job if no staff members have the time to train him?
The staff is burned out — what adjustments could they make to be less overwhelmed?
Is Dr. Wyatt doing all he can? How could he be assisting the staff more during this strain?