Worked as a temp today..

Well I completed my temping day that I haphazardly signed up for months ago while feeling optimistic, one peach cidered Saturday night. I did it. It is DONE. I thought it would be neat because the office is literally one minute from my house and hey if I loved it wouldn't that be perfect?? Cost of gas would dramatically DROP from lots to none cause I could walk. That's a huge plus right there! I went in on Tuesday to see how the office runs and get a feel of the staff before I made my debut today.

I have been nervous about this ALL week. Not about meeting new people....that doesn't scare me in the least. The big thing I have a problem with is not knowing where things are and how things run (my comfort zone) and thus looking like an idiot in front of clients. I managed to indulge my fears and look like an idiot and talk like a trip hammer during all my appointments this morning. Yeah me!!

First, the regular hygienist is shorter than me and left handed. Imagine the obstacles right there. Chairs are lower and all my equipment is on the wrong side. Had to spend the quick 5 mins I had before the "morning meeting" moving everything around. Fun fun! So then the dentist, who seemed like a nice guy, ushers me in for the morning meeting. I don't do these at my regular office so I was intrigued as to what goes on..... perhaps a pow-wow or a "ra ra RA!!" before they start the day. I was a little disappointed. He reviewed all my patients and then pushed a piece of paper in front of me about hygiene billing. This is something that is going on in BC right now where the College of Dental Surgeons decided that dentists should be getting the hygienists working for them to bill for every single second that a patient is in the room as scaling or root planning (measurements for cleaning teeth) to pull in some extra bucks. It is a huge debate going on between the dentists and hygienists and I had already tackled it at my office by printing out the College of Dental Hygienists stand on the whole issue which is "it's your license". By that they mean if you are going to bill for procedures you did NOT perform, know that it is YOUR license that could be revoked, not the dentist's.

So I was a little taken back by this piece of paper that I hadn't seen since March and was debating on whether I say something or not. I decided not, because I was probably only going to be there half a day and as it turned out, I needed every single second with every patient because I was discombobulated and their instruments SUCKED to put it mildly. OMG...these things looked like mangled picks from the caveman era. EW! My poor patients had to put up with me banging them in the head with my knee (hitting the chair not their actual head), dropping the feeble suction on the floor that kept coming apart ( tick tock) getting my chair wheels wrapped up in the ultrasonic cord...OMG it was a comedy of errors!! My comfort zone was nuclear bombed and blown to smithereens. I did manage to complete the day and pick up what was left of my dignity and went to get my lunch (how optimistic of me!) to go home. I was then stopped by the dentist who brought me in his office and asked how the morning went (ACK!) and then proceeded to offer me a job. This was not a huge surprise to me as hygienists are VERY scarce in this city and many dentists are looking for anyone to help them out. I told him if anything should change with my current job I would let him know.

The office was pleasant enough and the girls were very nice but I think in this case, the grass was a little yellow and drier than I had hoped.