WHO HIRED THIS CONTROL FREAK?
An experienced psychiatric nurse I know worked in a government hospital.
One patient had been living on the street but was admitted to treat a medical condition she had
developed.
One morning a medical procedure took longer than expected so she was late going to lunch and late returning from lunch. (She was free to go to the cafeteria on another floor, on her own.)
The ward clerk noticed she was missing, went to the cafeteria where she was peacefully finishing lunch, and began berating her for not returning on time.
Not a good thing to do to people in uncomfortable surroundings who are accustomed to fending for
themselves.
What would you have done to prevent such occurrences?
Comment:
That's typical control-freak behaviour, common in bureaucracies. Bureacracies do not care about people - they are intrincicist with expectation of deterministic mechanisms, manipulative of the people they deal with (and with each other internally). The ward clerk needed coaching on how to deal with people, how to keep things organized without treating people that way - preferably before she did such things. (In a good culture she'd have been informally advised by the experienced staff in the course of the work.)
© Keith Sketchley Page version December 30, 2003 (0825PST)
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