As I said in my last post, I called in to my clinical on Tuesday due to the snow storm that we got. Whenever we miss a day of our clinical, we are supposed to email our clinical coordinator at school and let her know. So, I thought I was doing the right thing and emailed her and let her know that I missed Tuesday due to the bad road conditions and that I did not feel safe enough to be on the road. Tuesday night, I received an email back from her basically saying that she understands my decision not to go in, but I need to formulate a plan with my CI to make up for my absence so that it doesn't seem "unprofessional" and that "now that the roads are cleared off" I should head to Toledo and stay with "someone" so that I can make it to my clinical the next day. Um....ok.....
So I replied back that we were currently under a level 2 snow emergency, as was Lucas county, and that I was not trying to be unprofessional in any way. I apologized for my absence, but tried to explain that I can not afford to total my car and have injuries/hospital bills right before graduation when I am going to have student loans to pay off and will NEED to be working as a physical therapist (pretty difficult to do if you're injured). I gave her plenty of notice that I would probably be missing yesterday (Wednesday) as well since the conditions had worsened.
Yesterday morning, I woke up at my normal time (ugh...5:30) and looked outside and saw that my car was completely stuck in a snowpile. I watched my neighbor out back trying to leave for work at 6:30 and get his car stuck in the snow-covered parking lot. I still got around for work like I normally would, but then saw on tv that there were all kinds of car accidents. As it got lighter, I saw that my car was definitely stuck. So I called in to my clinical site. The receptionist was very nice and said that was fine. She asked if I wanted to speak to my CI and I said yes so that I could get an idea of how he wanted me to make up the missed hours (whether it be making them up over spring break or coming in on a couple of Thursdays, etc.). He gets on the phone and I tell him that I am very sorry but I will not be able to make it in. He says, "At all?!?!" and I said, "well unless the conditions improve, I might be able to make it in this afternoon. My car is currently stuck." and he says, "well go out, get your car unstuck and GET HERE. The roads are fine once you get out of your area."
Ok...jerk. I was so mad, I about started to scream at him. But I just said ok...went out and spent 30 minutes getting my car out and headed toward Toledo. I had to drive 20 miles per hour the whole way there because the road was a sheet of ice that had been packed down by all of the snow plows. Every time a semi went by in the other direction, it sprayed so much snow that I could not even see where I was going. It was impossible to see the lines on the road to even know if you were ON the road, and if any of those semis going the other direction had jack-knifed, I would have been dead. Thanks Wildwood for making me risk my life to get to your stupid clinic. Of course, once I got to Toledo the roads were fine and completely clear because more traffic (that had been going slower and stopped for stop lights) had been on them to warm them up. They had also been salted.
I get to the clinic at 9:30 and the receptionist who had taken my phone call got a very surprised look on her face and said something about how my drive was. I was so shaken up by the drive that I had tears in my eyes. I told her it was horrible and walked back to the gym. I get to the gym and one of the ATCs asked me how my drive was (in front of my CI) and I just said, "I don't want to talk about it." I looked around and saw that both PTA students at the clinic had called off and no one had made them come in. At lunch-time, my CI and his wife (who also works there) sat down at the lunch table and his wife says really loud and pronounced (apparently for me to hear), "the roads are FINE. They're all completely clear." I wanted to be like "Yeah in f-ing TOLEDO. They are not clear in RURAL areas if you would watch the f-ing news." but I kept my mouth shut. Then, one of the other employees of the clinic came in and said that she had tried to call off and they made her come in as well. She lives near me and came in furious that the rehab director had made her come in. She started explaining (in front of my CI and his wife) how horrible the roads were and how she felt like she had really risked her life to come in. I agreed with her and we sat there talking about the horrible road conditions for about 30 minutes, while my CI just stared at us.
I later went back to the office and my CI came in behind me. I told him how sorry I was for missing Tuesday and that I would be more than willing to make it up the Monday of spring break. He told me not to worry about it at all and it wasn't a big deal. He said, "we're pretty understanding of that here." What a joke. No you're not. You're not understanding at all. You think everyone who works there lives within a 5 block radius and that it was no trouble at all to get there. You have no respect for my life and the fear I felt driving to your stupid clinic. I have no respect for my CI anymore. None. I know we are supposed to have professional relationships and I will keep it that way. I didn't argue with him at all and when he told me I could leave yesterday at 6 instead of 6:30, I didn't even attempt to ask if he was sure that was ok. I just took off. It was already getting dark and I knew my drive home was going to suck just as bad as it did getting there. Several people told me on my way out to "be careful!" in front of my CI. I'm sure he doesn't feel bad in the least for making me come in yesterday, but I for one have no respect for his attitude about it.
I get home and have an email from my clinical coordinator that made me feel a little bit better. She told me that she didn't feel I was being unprofessional at all, just to be sure I spoke with my CI about making up the hours. Well, I did that...But she also said to get used to the fact that not all clinics are the same and "life isn't fair." Um yeah, I know life isn't fair, but let me just say one thing....I'm pretty glad I have a "life" and I'd like to keep it. You're not going to tell me that "life isn't fair" when it comes to risking it to get to a clinical.
The best part of this whole scenario, at least 5 of my classmates with clinicals in Toledo did not go in yesterday. They all called in, except for one who's clinic called her and told her that they were closed for the day due to bad weather. Her clinic is the St. V's outpatient department, located about 2 miles away from Wildwood.
Needless to say, the next 3 weeks can not go by fast enough.
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