Learning on the Job
Settling Into a New Role
It had been a couple of weeks since I started working in my new job. The team were friendly and were showing me how to do certain tasks.
I started to write each step down in a notebook so I could remember how to do it next time.
Learning the Discharge Process
One task was discharging a patient, which involved multiple steps. Each step had a process involving various systems.
I had done this task quite a few times and thought I knew the process.
A Question That Sparked Clarification
One team member asked me, ‘How are you sending the discharge letter?’
I replied, ‘I send this by email. I create the letter, password protect the letter and send the letter by email letting them know the format of the password.’
The team member replied, ‘Oh, you are meant to send the body of the letter by email rather than sending the letter as an attachment.’
Another team member agreed.
I looked up at them both and explained this was the way I was taught, however I could not remember who showed me. I also said that I may have merged two ways of working. I was confused.
Communicating with My Manager
After this, I emailed my Manager to explain what had happened. I could have spoken to my manager, however we were all working in the office together and I did not want to say it in front of the team.
I explained that I was confused as to which way was correct and I wanted to do the task in the most effective way for patients and comply with service regulations. My manager completely understood my perspective.
A New Opportunity
In my next one-to-one meeting with my Manager, they explained how the team leader was documenting the processes for each task, and asked whether I could support them with this.
Being a relatively new team member, I was delighted that I was asked to support with this task. I gladly accepted.
Lessons Learnt
This experience taught me the importance of:
Processes complying with company regulations
Being open minded of different ways of doing a task
Documenting the tasks to avoid confusion and gain clarity
Ensuring new team members are taught in a structured way
Documenting each step of a process so team members do not interpret things differently