For the past few weeks, I have been taking on an extra half day clinic per week to address the seemingly never-ending list of people who need to be seen. While I actually kind of enjoy the extra clinical work, I don't enjoy having more paperwork to do and less time in which to do it. By the beginning of yesterday, my desk was piled high with charts to dictate and phone messages to return and labs to review. I have no clinics on Thursdays, so I spent the entire day in my office slowly crossing things off my to-do list.
It still wasn't enough.
After clinic today, I ate lunch while dictating charts, and then I left the hospital to go to the other clinic where I work once a week. And did more paperwork there.
I'm still not done.
I'm really hoping that, with experience, I will get faster at dealing with paperwork, because it is currently taking up almost all of my non-clinical time. Time that I should be spending developing a research program (*ha*) or preparing presentations or teaching. Fun things. Non paperwork things. It also exhausts me in a way that no other aspect of my work does, because I need to focus carefully on what I'm doing despite how tedious and dull it is.
Thankfully, it's Friday, and for the next two days I can forget about the 45 dictations* that are sitting in my inbox waiting to be signed off on. Tomorrow the girlfriend and I are heading to an independent cinema in our pjs to watch Saturday morning cartoons and eat sugary cereal. Then on Sunday, I'm doing social activity #2** for the week and taking my nieces to a play about Harriet Tubman. After I go for a run in keeping with my goal to work out three times a week. And there will be sleep. Lots and lots of glorious sleep.
I need this weekend.
*Literally. Shit.
**Social activity #1 was dinner with my mom and my brother for part of a week-long promotion in which restaurants serve three-course meals at a discount. The conversation was good, but the food was really underwhelming (including inadequately cleaned shrimp *shudder*).
you do get faster at the paperwork. When I was first in practice it took me an extra 1.5-2 hours each day to do paperwork. Now I'm down to about 45 minutes! It just takes a bit of time.
ReplyDeleteI hear you - I'm new in practice (about six months in) and it's still taking me forever. I don't even want to think about the pile of charts on my desk. - M.
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