7 - Operation Chocolate

A lot of things come up at work that I can't figure out how to share without violating privacy or company policy.  This makes blogging more challenging than I had anticipated, but I do have a few topics cooking and I hope to find time to share them soon.  Meanwhile....

I just celebrated my 1-year anniversary at my job and had my first annual review.  It went well.  They are keeping me.  I'm still immensely grateful to have my job.  I love my coworkers.  I love that every day has a new challenge. 

Even so, lately I've been feeling like I'm losing what I think is one of my best assets:  my positive attitude.  Stop laughing!  If you know me well you are thinking of my penchant for snark.  True as that is, I have always been able to internalize the sarcasm when necessary and project sunshine in spite of inward eye-rolling.  But lately...

This week, after being bitched at by the 150th nurse of the night for not sending (insert completely NOT urgent medication name here) fast enough although I sent it twice already and it's probably sitting in the patient's med cubby or wandering the halls in the hands of another nurse looking for the nurse who is on the phone with me and she probably hasn't even LOOKED she just thinks it will drop from the sky in to her lap AND ANYWAY it's in her freaking pyxis (medication vending machine thingy for you non-hospital types) I had an epiphany....

Beginning last night, any nurse who is either pissy towards me or seems as though she's having a rough night (and the occasional nurse who gets less than the best from me on the phone) gets a piece of Dove (that's right no cheap stuff!) chocolate sent in a baggy with a note "something to sweeten your night (smiley face) from Pharmacy" in the tube with the med. 

The first night of Operation Chocolate was a success!  Two nurses made phone calls just to thank me.  One of them said that it was the only good thing to happen in her entire 12 hour shift and I said yeah I have nights like that too and we laughed. 

At the very least, I hope these nurses will be compelled to act a little nicer the next time I answer the phone.  What I am really hoping for is that over time, nurses (at least the night nurses... one girl can only work so much magic) will move away from "pharmacy is slow and a pain in the ass and why can't they get anything here on time" and move towards "give them a break, their job has it's challenges just like ours does".  It's a lofty goal... I'm wondering if Dove can work miracles?  Maybe I need to step it up to Godiva?

At your service, 

The Happy Pharmacist