It was a bit strange to return to my job in Bradenton, FL at first. I felt like I had just lived another life and was returning to my old life. It sort of felt like deja-vu. I was initially nervous about how taking 3 months off of work would impact my skills. I have to admit I was a bit rusty once I started working again. But everything came back to me rather quickly.
The staff was used to me working as speedy Gonzalez and fitting walk-ins easily in between patients. But I did need the first couple of weeks to adjust back to working, and wasn’t as fast as I normally am. A couple of things had changed on the EHR and I needed a few extra minutes to contemplate some HCC codes on my Medicare patients.
The level of complexity of the patients seemed higher than I remembered. But I think it was because since they opened my schedule last minute, they moved up some new patients that needed to be seen ASAP for serious reasons, such as an osteomyelitis patient needing IV antibiotics through infection disease; or a new patient with a decubitus ulcer, colostomy, and foley cath etc.
Additionally, all of these patients I was now seeing were new to me. Since I am not familiar with them, I do need to utilize the extra time they are allotted on the schedule with me. It only took me 1-2 weeks to transition back to my normal working self. This was good, as it reassured me not to be worried about taking an extended leave again in the future.
There continues to be some staffing shortages but I suppose it is like this everywhere. I noticed the other PCPs seemed to be burned out. I don’t blame them because they didn’t just come back from a 3-month vacation as I had (haha). So, I tried to do my best to help them in addition to staying on top of my own schedule. I found myself to have a lot of patience which is expected considering my extended leave.
