What are some reasons you either like or dislike your Unit Clerk/Unit Secretary?

[Thrillbook]

I am working towards becoming a Unit Clerk/ unit Secretary. I am unsure of what Unit I would like to work on, but I do have some universal questions!

1) What is a task that your favorite Unit clerk does for you that makes your day go smoother? On the contrary, what are some habits of a Unit Clerk that doesn't help make a Unit run smoothly?

2) Can you tell me about a time a Unit Clerk went above and beyond? What was the outcome of their actions? Did staff think of them differently afterwards and did it improve the working relationship?

3) Tell me about a time that a Unit Clerk was able to successfully use crisis intervention skills. What skills did they use to gain control of the situation? Did the Unit as a whole benefit from the intervention of the Unit Clerk?

[petertheparrot]

because they are unattractive and low functioning

[RNrhythm, BSN, RN]

I think it is extraordinarily unfair to our unit clerks when they get some cryptic, unclear, obscure order wrong and people over react. I have seen the illegible written doctor's orders and tell the clerk she should work for the FBI if she can decipher a swirly line with two humps as actual orders.

[Apples&Oranges]

We just got the best new unit secretary I have ever worked with, (we'll call her Mary.) Mary is amazing, and outperforms all of the other US I have worked with because:

1. Mary comes to work looking for ways to help the unit. The second that she gets to work (always early) she starts going through the computer looking for consults the night nurses may have missed. She looks through overnight discharges and makes sure the charts were broken down. She scans the tube station counter, sends labs that were waiting to be sent, alerts the nurses of pharmacy meds or blood that has arrived, straightens up the chaos from a busy night shift...just generally comes in like a very well organized hurricane.

2. Mary anticipates needs. If she hears a doc say a pt is going to be discharged, she checks the chart for paper scripts and clips them in front. If she hears that we are getting an admission, she coordinates with central monitors and makes sure the monitor is set up and ready to go. If I mutter that my pt needs a bedside commode, she chirps "I'll run and get it! Anyone else need anything from central while I'm down there?"

3. Mary keeps track of all of the things that I can't keep track of while I am charge with a full assignment. Admission times, discharge times, census, ratios, she knows that it's Sunday and the residents reported off to the other group of residents at 1:42 today instead of 3pm. She stops us from paging Dr. X who has been home in his jammies for 2 hours and won't answer. And she writes Every. Single. One. Of. These. Things. Down...as they happen...bless her heart.

4. Mary NEVER forwards me phone calls during initial assessment or med pass. She tells family members, "this is a very busy time for the nurses, and they are providing patient care right now. I'd be happy to transfer you to your mom's room so you can ask her what the plan is, though! If you really need to speak to the nurse, I can take a message, and she will probably be free to call you back LATER THIS AFTERNOON." I love Mary.

5. When she answers call bells (she answers call bells!!) she doesn't automatically say, "I'll tell your nurse." (PLEASE DON'T DO THIS.) She says, "what do you need?" If the answer is, I need my nurse, she asks, "what can the nurse bring you?" If the patient still won't answer, she says, "Sir, the nurse needs to know what you need so that she can help you as quickly as possible." 90% of the time, the request can be handled by Mary herself (did I mention how much I love her?) or by the nursing assistant. Thank you, Mary, for letting me finish hanging blood, talking to the neurosurgery attending, dealing with a chemo reaction....

6. She is never, ever, ever bored. What does this mean? I have never seen her on her phone. I have never seen her on Amazon Prime or Facebook. She is checking on patients if the phone is not ringing. She literally walks around to every nurse multiple times in a shift and asks, "what can I do to help you right now? Are you sure? If that pt in 15 needs cleaned up, I can help with that."

Mary has what I like to call work ethic. She takes pride in her role, and she is indispensable. She has a really demanding job, and I wish they would call her what she is: the Health Unit Coordinator, rather than unit secretary. She coordinates the whole unit. Without her, things fall apart.

Be like Mary!

[Julius Seizure]

because they are unattractive and low functioning

wat..