Phone Peeves

There are two ward clerks and one of them, (not Sue) annoys me to bits because she takes morning tea breaks, lunch break and afternoon tea breaks. And during these times and when she goes to the toilet (which is seemingly often?) she  diverts her front desk calls to the phone at my desk. Since no one else will answer it and letting it ring drives me insane (the ring tone is SUPER AWFUL), I am forced to answer the damn thing.

1. I am not trained to answer phones. I don't KNOW that I have to say "Hello, -name of hospital- Aliya speaking, can I help you?" in a polite voice. And doing that 5 times in a row is nerve-grating. I'm more into "Hello" and let the other person tell me what they want/who they are.

2. I am forced to do errands which waste my time because it interrupts my work and I'm not even supposed to be doing it. Errands like ordering meals for patients, transferring calls, looking up phone numbers, taking messages for the cleaning lady, sometimes dealing with people who are demanding/rude/near abusive because I'm the 4th person they've talked to after being transferred all over the place/put on hold.

Typing a discharge summary can take only 10-15 minutes. But when I'm interrupted like this;  it can take up to an hour! Plus, sometimes when I'm off to do these stupid errands, I forgot to save what I typed and it got lost...grrrrr.

3. Because I don't answer the phone saying "Dr Aliya", people on the phone sometimes treat me quite badly assuming I am the receptionist. Especially because I can't help them (because I DON'T KNOW how to) so they think I'm incompetent/useless. I don't like this. I shouldn't have to deal with this. It's not part of my job description. Sometimes if I'm fed up I tell the person on the phone, "Look, I'm just the doctor here. I don't know what/how to do what you're asking me to do". That usually shuts them up.

And the worse thing is, my work space is next to the nurses call bell alarm. It's like the airport announcement sound. Every time the patients press the button to call the nurse, there is a sound "ding dong ding".  It's very loud. And if the patient macam tak tahan nak kencing or something, he/she will press it multiple times. So it will be DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG RING RING RING RING DING DONG RING DING DONG DING DONG. Plus there are 30 patients so it rings about every 10 minutes max.

 My work space: that drasted PHONE and on the top part of picture that says 

RM10/11 ENS (Room 10/11 Ensuite) is the ear-deafening nurse call alarm.

Today was probably the day I wanted to shout out loud. The annoyance was just bursting inside me like a volcanic eruption. Why?

I was talking to my registrar..then DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG RING RING RING RING DING DONG RING DING DONG DING DONG RING RING...and the cleaning lady decided that was the best time to vacuum the floor around me with a high powered vacuum cleaner.

Nak nangis.