Most hated

I was sought out via email by a PA MSc trainee recently and we exchanged several emails on the subject of quality assurance.  As someone whose job it is to advocate for the patient (my title is PA Quality Coordinator), I provide support for the PAs.  I told the trainee that I had written the grossing manual (she informed me that the centre at which she was being trained did not have a grossing manual!) and that I regularly critiqued the PAs' work.  In a subsequent email, she told me that one of her supervisors said that I must be the "most hated PA in the country".  Maybe I am.  Thankfully (for me and, more importantly, for the patients) this is not a popularity contest.  Egos can't get in the way of ensuring the proper handling of surgical pathology specimens.  Anyone who takes a suggestion or a criticism personally needs to think less about him/herself and more about the patient.  Even more, anyone who forges ahead without being absolutely certain of how to approach a specimen -- thus potentially jeopardizing the patient's care -- hoping that s/he doesn't make a serious error, had better re-think their approach.  This is no game.  Peoples' lives are at stake and there is no room for error.  There is most definitely no room for ego or personality.  The pathologists who we assist must be able to depend upon us consulting if/when there is any doubt (including uncertainty about the medicine or the pathology or the manner in which a specimen should be handled).

Still to come:  inadequate PA training.