I'm exactly sure what I should do about this situation. I wanted to hear from other nurses who've worked in the small office setting before and get some feedback on if I'm wrong, or if I"m just not understanding the way the doctor's office is run.
I've been working for this otoneurologist for about 3 months now. This is my first office job as a nurse, and it's a small office, with two doctors, myself, an LPN, two receptionists and a medical secretary. A couple of weeks ago the doctor asked me to help him catch up on his dictations because he's like 3 weeks behind. He wants me to dictate the appointments for his new patients because we have new patients 4 days a week through February. Well he sat down with me for 20 minutes one afternoon, and I watched him do one dictation, and now he expects me to be up to his level of dictating and I know that's not going to happen. He wants me to have it down to a science after one 20 minute session with him and I told him that was impossible because I have no idea on how to do dictation. The other doctor even said it took him years to have dictation down really well, so it shouldn't be expected of me to do it the way he does it after 2 weeks.
He swears up and down that RNs do dictation all the time for doctors, but I had never heard of it before now. I checked with my state board and they say its fine, as long as I receive the proper training, but if I'm not comfortable I shouldn't do it. The other side of this story is I asked if I could finally have my benefits, and he told me that if I don't do his dictations, I won't get my benefits, which I thought was a little unfair and illegal. He thinks I don't have enough to do in my role as his phone triage nurse so I need to be put on part time, but if I do the dictations, he'll keep me on full time and I get my benefits. I already do phone triage, all disability and SSA paperwork, PAs, and help out with scheduling and other office duties when I have the time, but he wants me to make the dictations my priority.
So I would like to know if this sounds on the up and up with any of you. I'm already uncomfortable in the office because the doctor has no real social skills, is very awkward, and the epitome of passive-aggressive. He's great with his patients, but has a hard time speaking to us as employees, and has every done through emails and the office manager.
Any thoughts, comments, and observations would be appreciated. Thanks.
