Respect garners respect, yet they don't know it

We RTs at the RT cave were told by the head RT boss that we don't take our jobs seriously enough. We make too many needless mistakes in our charting. We complain too often about stupid doctor orders. We make up fake diagnoses that better explain why the patient is really in the hospital, such as exaggeration of asthma.

Yet, at the same time, during a meetings a year ago one of my co-workers brought up the fact that one particular doctor in the ER "doesn't know what the #$#@# she is doing. She orders treatments every hour until discharge on CHF patients, and does Q30 minute Xopenex treatments for croup."

So, as a group, we wanted this doctor investigated. We wanted it documented that she orders more procedures than any other doctor.

The next meeting the results were it: This particular doctor in question did not order more treatments than any other doctor.

However, this study did not take into consideration that the doctor in question works nights, where fewer patients are admitted. Yet, based on the results, the RT bosses dropped the issue.

Recently the issue was brought up again. In fact, this time we kept a stack of dumb doctor orders by this doctor. The RT Boss looked at that stack and said, "Look, we need these procedures to keep our jobs. With the economy the way it is, you should just be happy to be working."

I discussed this with another of my co-workers, who said this: "How can they expect us to take our jobs seriously when they don't take us seriously."

Point made.