Would this get on your nerves?!

[grinchlet]

Namechanged in case colleagues are lurking

I’m a nurse in a clinic, we all have our own slots on the list so we know who is responsible for seeing each patient, but we all help each other out if we’re running behind, offer to take each other’s patients if we already know the patient from previous visits, etc. The nature of our clinic has a high non-attendance rate, so sometimes there are lulls in the day but there is always something else to do!

One of my colleagues has a habit of ambushing my patients at the door and calling them in before they have checked in via reception and been flagged as arrived, and the first I see that my patient is in the building is either them walking into my colleague’s room, or seeing my colleague’s name flag up next to the patient’s name on the list. If they haven’t got them at the door, sometimes they will take them from the waiting room after they’ve checked in, but not flag that they’ve ‘started’ them, so I’ll go into the waiting room and call the patient’s name several times, and another patient will tell me that they’ve already been called in, making me look a bit daft. This is all usually several minutes before the patient’s actual appointment time, so it’s not as if I’m running late and my colleague is trying to help me catch up.

Today, I had a student nurse with me and my colleague took FOUR of our patients, so four potential learning opportunities were missed and it must have been quite frustrating for my poor student, not to mention embarrassing for me as a mentor!

The most annoying part is that after the patient has left, my colleague will come and say “saw your 4pm for you” and look at me expectantly, waiting for me to thank them. It drives me absolutely bananas, nobody likes being bored when their own patients don’t turn up, but there are other things to do instead of poaching a colleague’s patients, surely! I’ve no idea if they do it to other staff members as I’ve not spoken to anyone else about it as don’t want to seem ungrateful or petty. No doubt my colleague would say that they are just trying to help, and they probably genuinely think they are being helpful but I can’t bear it!

AIBU or would this drive anyone else up the wall?!

YANBU. Tell her to stop.

I’m not really sure what they are gaining by doing this. It’s a bit weird to me. I’m in a job where we have appointments but I’ll only take one for a colleague if they’ve asked and the same for them taking mine.

Maybe try and develop a culture of asking for help rather than just assuming it.

I think if you were running late it would be fair play or had asked for help but taking them before their appointment time is cheeky. I think I'd just say to colleague that you'd rather see them yourself and it would be better if they did X if they're free.

The rest of us do, if I’m with a patient who needs more time and I can see that my next one has arrived, I’ll pop a message on Teams and ask if anyone is free to see them and 90% of the time, someone else will grab them, or I’ll see them if someone else sends a similar message. That’s the general culture of the team, but this particular colleague very rarely pipes up on Teams and doesn’t communicate that they are taking the patient, which is the frustrating part as it doesn’t give me the opportunity to say that I don’t need/want them to.

I think having your student is a good opportunity to say thank you for trying to help but I’d like to see the patients I’ve got booked in and give my student a leaning opportunity.

What's happening to your colleagues patients while she is taking yours? Sounds very odd!

I may have a suspicious mind, but is she starting to set things up to look like they have to do your work for you?

I'd tell her you really appreciate her help but it throws you off your stride and could she specifically check with you if you need help before taking any of yours.

Is this NHS? 😕

Colleague has a similar list to mine, our skill set is similar but the slots either don’t get filled or the patients just don’t turn up! Sometimes we will be absolutely rammed, but today we had several unfilled slots, so I imagine colleague was just trying to fill their own time and didn’t consider that I had a student with me and might want to actually have something for her to do 🤦🏼‍♀️ my appointments today were mainly patients I had triaged and booked in myself specifically so I knew I would have a variety of learning opportunities prepared for her!

I am also suspicious of colleague’s motives, they are generally a bit of a smartarse and are forever giving unsolicited advice so I don’t know if it’s an ego thing or if they are trying to set me up for something. I have supervision coming up soon, I probably will mention it and it may transpire that they do this to everyone, or that they are targeting me for some reason.

It is, but why the 😕 face?

If you have a handover or mini meeting at the start of the day maybe remind 'all' colleagues that you have a student and have arranged for her to have certain experiences so please don't nick your patients. Have a look at everyone else's faces when you say it and they may reveal something.

Oooh that’s a good idea, thank you! Gets my point across without making it personal. We don’t currently have a huddle but I may suggest that we start doing so at our next team meeting as I think it is a good idea to have one anyway, to address things such as having students in clinic, supporting our newer nurses, etc. We all arrive 30 mins before the first appointment so plenty of time for it in the morning.

We have a huge influx of nursing and medical students in the coming weeks so now is probably a good time to start ‘huddling’ in the mornings to discuss who is best placed that day for teaching.

In your shoes, I’d be really annoyed.

As a patient, I’d also be pissed off at not being checked-in properly, or seeing the person I’m supposed to.

I never cease to be amazed, that’s all op.

@Caggers Yup. Indeed but that appears unimportant in the scenario. 😕

I deliberately didn’t address why it would be awkward for the patient in my post because it would be quite outing re the service I work in and why they might prefer to see me instead of colleague.

But don’t be shy, do tell me what you’re so upset about.

It’s getting on your nerves @grinchlet hence why I presume you posted?!

“As a patient, I’d also be pissed off at not being checked-in properly, or seeing the person I’m supposed to.” This is what I was thinking- but someone already posted, presumably this is not a concern for you? Fair play. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It is a concern, but I JUST explained why I deliberately didn’t mention how it affects patients. Presumably you read that post, seeing as you replied to it?

Am I not allowed to be pissed off about it for the reasons outlined in my OP alone without divulging the nature of the service I work in and why this impacts on patients as well as me and my student?

can't you discuss with your manager?
Partly her unreasonable behaviour, but also to suggest that the dept could reduce waiting lists by overbooking, calculated on the average 'no show' rate

It’s tricky as it’s an ‘on demand’ service for the most part, some patients are seen once and then don’t need to return because their treatment is complete in one appointment, some need to return weekly and some need to return every few months.

I absolutely HATE a dripfeed and wasn’t planning to reveal the more specific details, but I can see how being deliberately vague isn’t helping me explain why this is such an issue! As I’ve namechanged and this can’t be linked to previous posts (I hope!), I might as well explain that the service is sexual health and that my colleague is male. I particularly hate when he takes a female patient from my list when I (a female nurse) am available to see her, as invariably women prefer to see women in sexual health, especially if an examination might be involved in the appointment. Even the questions we ask all patients would make a lot of female patients feel uncomfortable coming from a man.

I specifically didn’t explain this in my OP as it is quite outing, especially if colleagues read it, and deliberately didn’t mention that colleague is male and that the majority of patients are female as wanted to gauge whether IABU or not based on the reasons I gave in my OP without going into the rest of it. Colleague is categorically not interested in women, so no nefarious motives on that front, but I can see how this context might explain why it’s much more of an issue than just how it affects my own working day. Hope it clears some of it up for you too @Missingmyusername, I didn’t mean to be snarky with you but didn’t want to go into all of that for my own privacy. It’s not that I don’t care about the patients - far from it - but can see why it might have looked that way.

he is definitely being unreasonable then - I'd probably leave!

Sorry op, I think that’s an integral part of it- can see why you didn’t want to mention it though. If I were attending for anything in that area/topic of conversation etc I would refuse to see a male personally. I didn’t even know this was a possibility! Though I may well be a bit shell shocked I’d go ahead with the appointment and feel a bit violated afterward, at the very least uncomfortable.
Do men carry out smears too then? (Literally no idea!)
So the service provided is for men too? I would just think the male nurses see the men, women a woman.
I can see why you have an issue and no your colleague should not be seeing women.

He can see women and I can see men if they give fully informed consent for it. For example, if I triage a woman and can see that clinic is full apart from a slot with him, I will explain that we can see her on X day but the clinician is male, is that okay or would she prefer to come on Y day when there is a female clinician available? Usually they’ll say they’re happy to see him but occasionally they will decline, in which case I add ‘female only’ to their notes (he definitely wouldn’t go against that, for all his flaws!)

Occasionally there will be a male patient booked in for me and they’ll get there and then ask to see a man (but rarely do they mention a preference on the phone!), if there’s a male staff member available I’ll do some shifting around so they can see a man there and then, or will rebook them. Most men don’t seem to mind one way or another (if anything, more men request to see female staff instead of male staff), but a lot of women do have strong feelings on it. Most of our nurses are female so it’s never usually an issue to do a bit of switching around there and then.

The majority of women booked to see him are happy to see a man, but they have been given the choice in advance! I would also hate to turn up to a sexual health clinic with a problem that meant I would probably need to be examined and it wasn’t mentioned in advance that the clinician would be male. I would most likely ask to be rebooked if I turned up and wasn’t expecting to see a man, but I know a lot of patients would feel awkward having that conversation so might just go along with it, and I don’t think that’s right.

Male nurses can do smears though, yes. Most gynaecologists are male! It’s funny - I don’t think I’d have a problem seeing a male gynae but I don’t think I’d want a man to do my smear. I can’t rationalise it, but that’s how I feel!

Sounds like your clinic has very high DNA rates if at least two of are experiencing that many no shows. Could you tackle it from that angle? Maybe in a team meeting you could raise it and suggest someone does an audit or puts together a plan for improving attendance rates and he may volunteer for that - keep him busy when his own patients don’t turn up??

Just tell them ...

Your service sounds overstaffed. It is a problem as the NHS is supposedly under resourced.

I usually have my smear done by a male gynaecologist. They are much, much better at it, ime, than practice nurses, usually female.