我左手拿叉右手拿刀，将生活慢慢享用

PSA

PSA - This is definitely not Port of Singapore Authority though social studies lessons and our general knowledge very well guide us into the likely conclusion. PSA refers to Patient Service Associate, the part time job that I am temporarily holding at the Asthetic Plastic Surgery Clinic at NUH.
What is the job like? Well, for those who have gone to a clinic / hospital before, you must remember those people sitting at the counter, whom you must approach to 'seek attendence' to see the doctor, whom you wait restlessly for to signal to you that the doctor is ready and whom you must give away your hard earned dollars to after seeing the doctor for a pity amount of time compared to the time you spent waiting. I am one of those people now.
Hum, to think about it, I have worked for only about eight days thus far. While Chen Lu mentioned that she managed to master everything her job demands within a day or so, i am still encountering brand new things every single day. Have I master 70% of my job scope? This is worth considering.
Being a PSA is really not simple. Besides having to know how to work the registration system, visit scheduling system and payment system of the hospital, one has to work fast, be patient, be alert of the action of everyone in the clinic (doctors, clinic manager, nurses and patients), and in my case, familiar with the services at the clinic. Be prepared to answer inquries ranging from when is a specific doctor free to how does a specific treatment work, a PSA is really a multi- purpose person acting as the role of casher, financial consultant, nurse and secretory.
I still trying to master all the skills that are required to be the professional PSA i see in my collegues.
Firstly, I have to start to learn to multitask. Imagine having four forms for each patient and five patients at hand - some doing payment, some registrating, while a phone call arrives to book an appointment. Things gets really hectic and messy, yet nothing must go wrong, and you need to serve well.
Secondly, I am learning to pay attention to the people around me. As a secretory, I need to keep track where everyone is in the clinic. Who are busy and who are not. Which nurse is doing procedure or with a doctor. I can't let a simple inquiry about is this person avaliable, that person in stun me. The more challenging part is recognising patients, which is particularly pulling me beyong my usual self for i used to pay little attention to strangers. But during my work, I realised that many patients assume that I recognise them and know their situation very well. They would talk to me about their condition and expect advise without a proper introduction. Hence, to be a good PSA as I wish to, I have to know the patients well and to stay alert. It was particularly impressive that all doctors around seems to be able to master this skill and I ll aspire to do the same.
Finally, I need to to know the treatments well, at least the basics and the cost. I feel so proud that I am finally able to handle some phone calls about our treatments by myself, instead of bothering the nurse and other PSAs around.
There are definitely much more things out there for me to learn. And I am looking forward to the day when I can move on to become a room girl.

posted by jingzhi @ 7:41 PM