We RTs become humbled

When he got his job as an RT he had so many ideas to make it better. Yet when he came forward with his ideas he was screamed at and scolded by the RT Boss. Still he marched forward with new ideas, and each time he continued to be scolded.

Sometimes his ideas were approved. Once he asked for a new airway box, and the boss approved that idea. So, four years later when we still had the OLD airway box, he just figured the boss had lied -- In year #5 we actually got the box. Yep, it took five years.

Sometimes I'd listen on as he'd keep his mouth shut and listen to the lecture of why we as an RT department can't do this or that. I wondered why the boss didn't just tell him his ideas were great but he would have to go through the system the way he did with the airway box.

Of course any person who "goes through the system" (otherwise known as a bureaucracy) knows it can be extremely frustrating and extremely long. My friend once said to me, "If we were simply allowed to solve problems as they arose instead of going through the system, there would be no problem in the first place. It might even up morale."

And other times he'd make a gallant attempt to explain his position. And once or twice this resorted into a shouting match. And, of course, these little fights were always the fault of the person coming up with the new ideas, and not the RT Boss.

Perhaps he could have approached the boss in another way. But, instead of approaching the boss again, he came up with new ideas and has them stacked in a pile in his locker doing no one any good, except once in a while when he brings one of those papers to a meeting. And, hence, the bosses usually say, "That sounds like a great idea," and cast it aside.

So all the geniuses in our department were quashed. The one I'm referring to in this post nearly quit once or twice, but staying here is a lot more "convenient" than traveling two hours to the other hospital. He also decided the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence. Plus, other than this issue, he loves his job at Shoreline.

"It's frustrating when you have so many solutions yet nobody wants to hear them." He paused, then added, "When they do listen to an idea (a rarity), it's no longer your idea -- it's the admin's idea."

I haven't heard much from the one I'm referring to here in a long while. He has been totally shut up. One like him will never come about again -- too bad.

That is what I thought until recently, when we had a new hire who went through the same process. Recently he came to me and said, "I have come up with some great ideas, and what's the point."

She had many new ideas as new RTs often do. They have many ideas of new products or new RT wisdoms they picked up in RT school. Or something was done a better way at another hospital she worked for.

Yesterday she came to me and told me she was screamed at and scolded so many times that she has decided she will no longer go to the bosses with his ideas.

As he's saying this, I think to myself, "Hmmmmm, sounds familiar." I said to him, "Don't give up, because some day your hard work will pay off."

And so we become humbled as so many before us, yet we never give up.