25 minutes ago

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Sorry, this is going to be long!

I got a new job and started bout three weeks ago. I attended hospital orientation and other mandatory classes before actually starting my job. So for the past 1 1/2 weeks, I've been learning how to do all the things that go along with the job meaning the paperwork flow, the doctors and their individual requirements (each one has a certain way they like things done), pediatric echo (new to me, I only scanned adults before), which floors are which, where the ports are in the hosp to download the study to the reading room, how the general flow of the day goes. There is so much to learn, it's overwhelming. To make it easier on myself, I have a small notebook that I write everything down in. It works pretty well until a co-worker of mine decided to change her mind about how we do something. So here's the meat of this post...

One of the gals I work with is really smart and has been in the field for a while, about as long as me before my hiatus. Well yesterday I had a patient who was getting a study done which required sedation and a cardiologist to be present. My co-worker gets to work at 6 am. She usually doesn't do any studies in that time but pulls previous tests and looks up the patient's history. She writes any pertinent information on the inpatient requisitions as well as the outpatient schedule by the patients name. Yesterday when I got to work, lo and behold, she was actually upstairs doing a study. Anyway, the previous echoes were pulled but no history on the patients was written down. I mistakenly thought that there was no pertinent information on the patients since this gal is so thorough.

When the cardiologist came to do the test in the lab, he asked the patient's history and what we are doing the test for. The nurse told him. The other echo tech was in the room during the study and she seemed to be at a loss when he asked her the history on the patient. How would I know because she told me she takes care of that every morning.

After the test while the patient was waking up but my part was over, I went to my desk and started writing up the report worksheet that goes in the doctor's box with all the patient information. While at my desk, my co-worker sat beside me at her desk and proceeded to tell me what I did wrong to which I responded with what she told me was her responsibility (and justification) for coming in so early. She got very angry at me and screamed at me: "Don't argue with me"! I then told her (calmly) that I wasn't arguing with her, that she told me this is why she comes in early to pull the paperwork. She got super pissed and stormed out of the room.

A little back story:

Earlier in the day I noticed my co-worker talking to another co-worker. They were talking in low voices in the hallway. I heard her talking about me saying that I keep making mistakes. When I came around the corner, the gal she was talking to made a face to her with big eyes as if to warn her that I was coming. It was ridiculous and very high school. Their group broke up quite quickly. I then approached my co-worker and stated to her that if there's anything I need improvement on or anything that she would like me to do better, please let me know directly and not go to a co-worker to air her frustration. She politely agreed and walked away. I just wanted to let her know in a non-confrontational way that I overheard her and that I won't tolerate that kind of behavior from her.

So, after she blew her top at me in front of our patient, the nurse and the cardiologist I felt it necessary to speak to my supervisor about the situation. My supervisor is going to have a talk with her. She said that kind of behavior will not be tolerated not only in our department but the hospital as a whole.

After met with the supervisor, I wanted to talk with my co-worker and let her know that if I offended her in any way that I apologize and that I hoped we could move forward from this situation. I thought better to be the bigger person and besides, I love my job and the rest of the people there. Well, during the conversation, she told me that I'm super sensitive and that we'll have to take a look at my future with the hospital. She stormed out of the room once again, like a child in a tantrum. I again went ot my supervisor who assured me the situation would be handled in a professional manner.

Food for thought: One morning I came to work to find this bully co-worker returning from going to breakfast with her husband at the hospital cafeteria. She said he brought her to work so she owed him breakfast. ?? There were requesitions on the desk waiting to be done but she blew off the first hour of work instead of doing what she is being paid to do. Not the first time this has happened.

Another back story: The second day I was working after the mandatory things, my co-worker had a situation with our department secretary. She was bitching about the secretary who does our scheduling saying things about the gal that I felt were inappropriate. This, coupled with yesterday's events tells me that her behavior towards me is not the first time she has behaved in this manner.

Here's the thing, I've only been at the hospital for three weeks. I really like my job, other than this gal and her tantrums. I don't have a history with this establishment as she does and I want to keep my job. I somehow feel that I did something wrong, even though I know I didn't. Now I am going to feel very strange working with this gal in the future. I plan to just be professional and have as little interaction with her as possible. Any other suggestions?