The Art of Negotiating
Today I failed miserably in the art of negotiating. The Hamilton exercise validated how terrible I am and how much I lack the skills to be selfish and defend my qualities when it comes to negotiating a salary. I have had many opportunities in my short life to negotiate a salary and to be bluntly honest, I failed miserably at all of them. As Paul was explaining that most people avoid this type of exchange I started thinking about why do I have such a negative opinion of negotiations. I considered if it is because I enter this ritual with the predisposition that I have to do the numbers dance…. 35…30…34….32.5… , or that I expect some sleazy tactics to trick me, or is it that I view negotiating as a type of confrontation which I want to avoid at any cost. There was no process of elimination in my… Continue reading
Speaking…not so easy
A couple of very important issues were brought up during day two, the biggest one being communication. During the three rounds of domino, I was able to experience what it is to be a bystander and simply observe the ineffective monologue of a physician while a nurse fumbled in confusion, be a nurse who was unable to communicate but followed clear instructions, and be a physician who could give instructions but also listened to the feedback of a nurse and the mediation of a case manger. This exercise made me fully realize how limited and ineffective we can be in our daily interactions if we do not make the effort to modify the way we explain tasks to our peers. To take this a little bit further, if we as future health care providers cannot understand each other how can our patients understand us. I think that it is very… Continue reading
Saying I am sorry
“Are physicians afraid to admit to medical mistakes out of fear for being sued and consequently, open and hones communication cannot be achieved. “This statement was brought up during our team building session and not only stuck with me but also continues to bother me. As physicians we enter the profession to help heal people and in the meantime cause no harm. But harm does happen; it is inevitable. We are not infallible. Because we are not perfect we have been given a consciousness and the power to make choices. We can chose to be honest and open, to admit to our wrong doing as well as to our good work. Or we can chose to hide our dirty laundry so to speak. But when we start doing so, over time our mistakes will consume us.
I don’t believe that rules change when we grow up. From little kids we… Continue reading