Muster

The muster in the hospital office is becoming a joke. On one hand there are those auditors who audit the muster so that people are forced to sign in and out on time. On the other hand there are those clinicians who believe in just doing it, no matter how long it takes. They are not so rigid about time in, time out, and timely signatures on the muster. Some of my residents are so overworked that they sometimes do not get time even to sleep. It would be inhuman on my part to expect them to sign on the muster in time. We allow the residents to sign in the muster at any time during the day in office hours. If they have emergency duty, we allow them to sign the next day. We know they actually work and are not away having fun, because their unit heads report if they are missing. But sometimes they do not sign for days together. That is not because they do not have time, but because they are not bothered to sign. We do not allow them to sign for a number of days at one time. Sometimes my clerks are kinder than I and allow them to do so without my knowledge. I turn a blind eye to that because work is being done, and it is not my job to do policing. The interns are relatively free and can very well sign every day. If they do not do so, I scold them because they have to learn some discipline some time. Today morning I was doing some work in the office. I had finished my work and was about to leave, when an intern came along and dug out his muster from the pile of all musters. I decided to wait and see what he did. He did not recognize me even though he was right next to me because I was in street clothes rather than my scrub top and apron. He found his page, and signed seven times. Satisfied, he turned to go away. “Hey, wait” I said “who are you?” He turned around, looked at my face carefully and was taken aback a bit when he finally recognized me. “I am an intern” he managed to say. “Why did you sign seven times?” I asked. “I forgot to sign on three days” he said. “That makes it three days. What about the remaining four days?” “Then I had an emergency duty.” “What about the subsequent three days?” I asked. He had no answer. “Did you forget again on those three days?” “Actually I enter the hospital through the back gate and exit through that gate. So I don't come to this office to sign, it being at the other end of the hospital” he said. The department was in between the back gate and the office and also at this end. But perhaps he thought I would not remember so much about the geography of the department since we were in transit area due to repair and renovation work. I accepted his argument, turned to the clerk and said quite gravely, “What he says is right. Keep a copy of this muster near the back gate from tomorrow so that he can sign.” All three clerks had been watching us quite closely for entertainment purpose. They burst out laughing. I hope he got the message and will sign the muster every day from tomorrow.