Rules must be enforced with common sense

Some people take things in stride & prefer to use their individual freedom to solve problems. Some people are tense and have so many rules that in order to keep them happy you have to follow all the rules.

I think some rules are important, but too many rules merely take away individual freedom. And, absent individual freedom, new innovations are stifled. In my humble opinion, this merely stifles creativity.

One of my co-workers took what I thought was a great idea and to the bosses, who promptly heralded it and then brushed it under the carpet. Five years later the promised changes have still not been made.

In essence, my co-workers, tired of being ignored eventually decided to keep their mouths shut and "grin and bear" the status quo. The result here is a bunch of happy workers with no one willing to stand up to fix problem areas. Hence, you either hear grumbling in the RT Cave or, in my case, facetious RT Cave humor.

I hear this a lot: "Why should I go out of my way to share my ideas to make the department better when all I get is ridicule or ignored?"

My co-workers, and myself included, and perhaps even you, are written up when we make serious errors. Of course even the gravest errors are learning experiences, assuming we don't repeat them. Those are acceptable write ups.

Major write-ups are rare. Yet pidly write-ups seem to be a common feature here in the RT Cave. And that, my friends, is one of the problems of working for a small town hospital. Most bigger hospitals have bigger fish to fry, so creating rules for paltry things is not a priority.

One of the best parts of working nights is the freedom of working by myself and prioritizing therapies. Still, the powers that be that set and enforce the rules can make life very stressful for you when they come in and tell you all the "minor" rules you broke, like forgetting to chart, "No treatment indicated" for a prn order.

I say this knowing my greatest priority is not giving treatments that aren't' needed, but saving lives. But, when it comes to the bosses of small town RT caves, they have little else to think about than the things that the larger hospitals WOULD brush under the carpet and not worry about.

That is exactly why large hospitals have protocols that allow us RTs to decide who needs our therapy and who doesn't. Smaller hospitals need the money from all those frivolous therapies to stay in business.

So, the whiny RT says, "Hey, boss, that treatment isn't needed. That patient has never had a bronchospasm in his life."

The boss says, "Whiney, if the doctor ordered it, it's needed."

Hence, whiny finds solace complaining about the "stupid rule," as opposed to making an effort to change it. Still, in my opinion, it's better to be humble. Take your lickin' and keep on tickin.

Whether you like the beast of politics or not, it shows its ugly head around every corner. So you might as well just grin and bear it. Even if it's rules that take away our individual freedoms.

So, I suppose you wonder what my point is. I simply think bosses should think about the rules they make, and have a little leeway in how they enforce the piddly ones like, "Did I dot all the i's and cross all the t's."

Or, said another way: they should encourage a little common sense.

I say this because I'm certainly not going to rush upstairs to do the seven treatments that are due on people who have never had a bronchospasm in their lives, when I have a patient who really does need me in the ER.

But that's common sense.

It is true that absent rules people are lazy. Yet rules must be enforced with some common sense. And that, my friends, is the thought of the day.

Note: The leading hospitals in the world did not get where they are today by stifling creativity.