I think after you have been doing the job for so long ela and having communicated in some way with probably thousands of folk you must get pretty good at judging fairly.
I'm fairly good with public and enjoyed short spells in reception, it gave me a break from the norm (my greatest skills are in the medical side of things tho) although my biggest failing is dealing with very ignorant / poorly educated sorts. I have a hard time keeping my composure and not losing my rag Some ..ok many may have said i dont suffer fools gladly (a failing on my part i know) after half and hour of them just not listening/understanding/argueing/thinking they know best. I start off great but just slowly lost the will to live at which point i'd shout a proper receptionist etc back and disapear back to doing what i was good at
I do remember such a woman years ago who had a little cavalier king charles. she loved her dog dearly and had grown up mentally handicapped children so really she'd always had quite a poor life being a skivvy to everyone but very well meaning, she was in the poor income bracket aswell. Her wee dog "ruby" had arthritic and heart problem but she was soooo obese and my head nurse (before i was head nurse) and i tried hard for well over a year to get this dog to lose weight. She could hardly breath or walk but the owner just couldnt take in what we spent hours telling her..the usual was "but ruby doesnt eat alot" we explained the full shibang about kcal requirements, the detrimental effects it was having on her health. we gave her so much attention and support explaining how to get her doggie to eat the diet food, tips and advise but it was always the same "ruby doesnt eat alot and i only give her fun sized fudges etc now not the big ones" finally whilst we were both in the room altho it was my head nurse doing the talking with her eyes slowly bulging out more and more from the sockets and her face turning blue
she just snapped (rememeber we'd done this every week for atleast 18 mnths) and she says to the woman " Look the bottom line is ruby is going to die very soon and you are the person who is killing her, we have gone an extra 10 miles and bent over backwards for you but you are refusing our help so there is nothing further us nurses can do for you" I stood there gobsmacked that she'd said this to a client (and trying to stop myself laughing coz it just got so funny in the end) Funnily enough after we had calmed down then started thinking sh
e we're in for it now from the boss...he actually turned round and said "well done"
someone had to say it like it was, it was the only way she'd understand
Needless to say ruby never lost much weight, well she did but only due to illness, killed in the end with kindness really.
No i really dont think i could do Ela's job, I'd be good at some aspects of it but i'd say she gets a fair few of the type of peeps i am better staying clear of. Once when i was going through a bad spell at work and just wanted to get out i went for a job interview as a dog warden for the local coucil. In the interview you'd think i was being interviewed for the sas or something
but they were asking all types of hypothetical questions and in the end i didnt get the job because i had said when returning roaming dogs etc i'd "advise" neuterings/vaccinations/chipping etc etc (all the stuff i'd advise as a vn to the public) and this isnt a place of a dog warden so even though i thought i'd probably provide a better service to the animals benefit, as even if only 1 person listens out of 10 its progress they said i wasnt suitable for the role as they were looking for someone who was just going to know how to handle the animals (i was ok in that bit) and return them giving warnings about letting their animals roam
I was glad because worked picked up after that again and i was happier doing what i do best.
