Assignment:
Most "Entertaining" Emotional Intelligence Story
Drazen
I'm currently working at US Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan as an Advanced Medical Laboratory Technician. Basically, our job is to deliver accurate patient testing results in a timely manner especially when we are dealing with inpatients. I was assigned to become a night technician after 6 months of training. I was working with another tech and we are basically running the whole laboratory. Our laboratory consists of multiple benches such as Chemistry, Blood Bank, Urinalysis, Microbiology, Immunology, Hematology, Coagulation, Cytology, and Histology.
As a brand new tech, I would say 6 months of training is not sufficient for me to become proficient in all benches. One night, I ran a Chemistry sample that it was ordered as "STAT" and stat testing requires us to report the results within an hour especially it was coming from the Emergency Department. I missed the turnaround time for that specimen and certified the results 2 hours later because I got caught up doing testing for the other benches. On the next business day, our Chemistry Supervisor noticed that the turnaround time was missed. He wrote me up for missing the turnaround time, stating that I neglect PT testing. It was a really difficult time for me at that time because the counseling that he did was just one-way communication.
He never gave me the chance to explain my side neither made an investigation about the incident but instead jumped into conclusion that I was being negligent. However, on the next day, he apologized for his actions, telling me not to take it personal, and told me he was having a rough day because he was in trouble at that time due to his monthly report to our department head was not submitted on time. He also notified me that he shredded my counseling chit and not to worry about it anymore.
I learned few things about this incident. First, I learned that as a supervisor, you should not take out your frustrations to your trainees. Secondly, I learned that as a supervisor you should examine your actions or the way you treat the people under you just like how my supervisor apologized his actions.