We were so hoping this year would be easier and that the worst was over.
We celebrated the incredible achievement of vaccines to combat #Covid19 and were loving the fact we could start to return to restaurants and Australian travel again.
So just how did this year become “even worst than last year” for general practice staff?
“Patients see vaccines as the solution to their problems and they are stepping over each other to get them.
We have certainly ended up with challenging client behaviour and it’s on a level that we haven’t seen in general practice before”
Michelle, Practice Manager, O’Connell Street Clinic, Sydney
Instead of patients singing the praises of their #healthcareheroes, patients are angry and are especially taking their anger out on the people who are answering phones or on the front desk – our admin staff!
Medical Receptionist Reality:
- Inundated with phone calls because patients are regularly hearing from Government to “call your GP”
- Rules from the Health Department change nearly every day.
- Patients are often informed by the media about rule changes before practices have been officially informed.
- Patients see vaccines as the solution to their problems.
- We do not have enough vaccines.
- The media has led patients to believe the Pfizer vaccine is better than the AstraZeneca vaccine.
- Patients with heightened anxiety often see receptionists explaining the rules as a way of fighting them and they then respond with anger.
- Did I mention rules change by the day!
The Effects of Long Term Stress
This is of course not only the 2nd year of living in a pandemic world but many patients and staff lived through extraordinary challenges directly beforehand (bushfires, floods etc).
Patients (and some staff) live with constant worry they may become infected and die or infect their families.
People are in and out of lockdown, often separated from loved ones and fearing for their ability to survive economically and emotionally.
Constant change = constant stress. Patients are often already angry before they call.
Imagine then you are the patient calling your medical practice. If your call does get through to the medical receptionist you will be asked to wait. You may be placed on hold for a very long time (because practices are getting thousands of calls and it is physically impossible to keep up). When you do get to speak you may then hear a response of:
i) we don’t have any vaccines to give you, or
ii) you don’t meet the eligibility criteria or
iii) the next appointment I can give you is in 4, 6, 8 weeks or longer
Now imagine you are the poor medical receptionist on the other side of those conversations hour after hour, day after day. Then imagine being face to face with angry/worried/fearful/anxious patients all day every day. Imagine working like that while some of your workmates or managers or doctors are also worried/fearful/anxious or angry and eliciting the effects of long-term stress.
What we are hearing regularly (especially from Victoria and NSW) is that staff are:
“exhausted, deflated, defeated…crying every day…walking off the job”
What Can We Do To Protect Our Healthcare Workforce?
Let’s encourage this new focus on highlighting the important work of medical receptionists and practice managers.
Let’s ensure the continual development of new support measures, resources, communities of support and sharing.
Let’s keep hearing the challenges and responding proactively.
Let’s build self-care strategies into our everyday routines.
Let’s keep the focus on supporting each other through these ongoing challenging times.
Here’s Something You Can Share
From the overwhelming response of Sydney practices to these extraordinarily challenging times – and the worrying amount of burnout – team #TrainITMedical was asked to run a webinar called ‘Challenging Communication in Challenging Times’.
Learning objectives:
1. Explore strategies used by experienced practice staff (Michelle Horswood)
2. Learn communication strategies to diffuse angry conversations (Katrina Otto)
3. Understand the importance of everyday self-care (Fleur Niven)
This webinar was presented by experienced Sydney Practice Managers Michelle Horswood, Katrina Otto and Fleur Niven with input from the entire team at Train IT Medical, especially our critical incident response/trauma trainers Monique Dickerson & Brooke Colburn.
Brooke’s experiences being on the ground with vaccine delivery in the US plus Monique’s experiences working with angry people (violent offenders) helped us see that we need to have a very different approach to help our staff cope long term in these challenging times. Skills are needed that nobody has ever had to think about before – and many managers do not have.
Watch the webinar recording here: https://courses.trainitmedical.com.au/
This webinar is free to share, kindly funded and shared by Central & Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network. The webinar recording, powerpoint slides and other free resources are hosted on Train IT Medical Learning Management System.
We encourage all staff to individually register and log in so they receive a certificate. You can also direct message the trainers through the platform for support and we will add more self-care resources regularly. If you experience any challenges accessing please email our superfriendly #InternDaniel 📨 [email protected] 📩
Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog next week when we will share more support resources designed especially for #medicalreceptionists and #practicemanagers.
Please know we walk this walk with you (week 8 of lockdown for Sydney based trainers). We leave our houses to go to work to provide essential health, welfare and support services.
We see and hear the distress and are committed to ensuring long-term support to protect our most valuable medical admin workforce. Keep talking to us. Tell us what you need. Reach out 💕
With love, respect and gratitude
Katrina, Sue, Michelle, Brooke, Monique and Daniel aka #teamTrainITMedical
www.trainitmedical.com.au
courses.trainitmedical.com.au
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