Working at the Clinic

I certainly have different emotions about work. The clinic itself that I work in has always had management issues, but they are getting worse. There is too much friction between staff, based on personalities, race and conflict of beliefs about how the clinic should be run. Those in a management role display very little leadership skills and don't respect their staff which in turn does not nurture respect in their staff. I hate to get involved with office politics, but when it affects the health information system that I am there to work with, then it becomes my business. The director has too much demand on his time to give the clinic the attention it so desperately needs. At the end of the day, it's the patients and the quality of care that they receive that suffers and that breaks my heart.

I am sure that it is not different from any other clinic, but it is my first clinic and everything is new to me. I have the added challenge of trying to introduce something new which there has definitely been resistance towards, less so now than in the beginning - but often not as much support or understanding for the system as I would like after this much time. I love the staff at the clinic and I have definitely felt very welcomed by them. A select few seem to know exactly when I need a little extra encouragement in my day and that is greatly appreciated. You can only do so much work and then wonder if it is really worth it before you need to hear it from somebody else that you do have purpose and your time is appreciated.

I can only hope and pray that somebody takes a leadership role at the clinic and that the staff learns to work better together despite all their differences. They all have so much to give and they could do so much for TB in Guyana if they saw the value in each other, respected each other and focused on the end goal of improving their current system and reducing the number of TB cases.