Chapter 83
“Dr. Xu, I was only two minutes late, it wasn’t intentional. Please can you let it go… My salary is already so low, and I’m trying to save up for a down payment on a house and to find a wife! I’m already thirty-four, without a house, no girl would be willing to marry me…”
Dr. Lu pleaded with a chubby face.
According to the hospital’s regulations, doctors who clock in late or leave early are penalized 100 yuan each time. This also includes taking meal breaks during work hours, which incurs a 100 yuan penalty.
A resident doctor in the Emergency Department’s operating room takes home about 7,000 yuan a month.
Dr. Lu is a senior resident doctor. However, the Emergency Department’s operating room doesn’t generate much income, and he’s quite lazy, performing not many surgeries. At most he doesn’t earn over 8,000 yuan a month.
Losing 100 yuan seems very significant to him, which suggests that his financial situation probably isn’t great.
His salary income is likely around 7,000 yuan.
After deducting social insurance, housing fund, and income tax when disbursing the salary, taking home 6,000 yuan is considered good.
If he’s late ten times a month, that’s a loss of 1,000 yuan.
Moreover, according to the department’s assessment regulations, those who are late, leave early, or abandon their post more than three times in a month will not receive any bonus.
Then, departmental commendations, promotions, and advanced training will also be affected.
Knowing full well the severe consequences of being late, still daring to be late frequently.
It’s nothing but betting that the senior doctors are soft-hearted.
As long as he isn’t caught by the Medical Department or the HR Department, pleading with his departmental seniors usually means he gets off the hook.
“Today, I must mark it down, so you learn a lesson!”
Dr. Xu changed from his usual King Yan-like sternness to a softer heart.
“Ah! Had I known, I would’ve woken up five minutes earlier! I know you’re doing this for my own good, I accept it.”
Seeing that he couldn’t plead for mercy, Dr. Lu admitted defeat.
“It’s good that you think this way. Get ready for work. You’ll still be my assistant, while Jin Mingxi and Xiao Zhou perform surgeries independently.”
Dr. Xu made the operation arrangement.
“I want to improve too. How about I switch with Xiao Zhou? Can I?”
Dr. Lu, possibly having faced quite a sting last night, must feel uncomfortable watching a newcomer surpassing him by a wide margin.
Furthermore, the words Director Lou said to him also triggered a sense of crisis.
So he became much more proactive and eager.
“No!”
Dr. Xu refused straightforwardly.
When it comes to surgical safety, he’s much stricter than Doctor Fu. He won’t agree if he senses any risk.
“If you want to improve, I will give you some opportunities for training.”
He added afterward.
Dr. Lu’s misdeeds from last night have ruined his reputation. It’s likely that no senior doctor will dare to easily delegate authority to him again.
Soon, two surgical nurses were called in.
Since Qiao Yu was on the night shift today, the nurse helping Zhou Can was changed to someone else.
Without comparison, there would be no harm done.
This nurse named Tian Tian is quite pretty and speaks pleasantly, but her performance is clearly inferior to Qiao Yu’s.
Sometimes she even gets the surgical sutures mixed up.
When passing instruments, she does it in a very stiff manner.
Occasionally, Zhou Can has to remind her to pass the corresponding instrument.
For example, after an initial wound debridement and it is bleeding, she would just stare blankly. Only when Zhou Can says ‘electrosurgical unit’ does she hurry to pass it over.
Qiao Yu’s cooperation with Zhou Can is much more in sync.
Often, they seem to read each other’s minds. Before Zhou Can could speak, she already has the corresponding instruments or surgical supplies ready and passes them in advance.
If only he could be promoted to Chief Level one day.
Then he could choose a fixed instrument nurse.
For now, with his low status, he has to make do.
…
Busy working until the end of the shift, Zhou Can completed a total of sixteen operations today.
Two less than yesterday.
Jin Mingxi performed thirteen operations, actually one more than yesterday.
It should be noted that yesterday, Zhou Can performed six more operations than Jin Mingxi.
The main reason for fewer operations today was the lack of coordination with nurse Tian Tian, which significantly affected surgical efficiency.
Fortunately, his gains were decent, earning a considerable amount of Experience Points.
The ligation and suturing skills should be able to advance to the intermediate level among resident doctors in a day or two.
His Experience Points for injections and hemostasis also increased significantly.
The only skill that didn’t increase much was the incision technique.
However, since he discovered the Experience Point system’s bug, as long as he’s willing to spend money, he could still rapidly advance his incision skill to Level 4 by practicing on rats after work.
With a Level 4 incision skill, that’s the Chief Level.
Just take the opportunity to showcase his skills in front of Dr. Xu; there’s no reason why he wouldn’t be given Level 2 surgery opportunities.
Another thing worth mentioning is this.
After his epiphany with the grasping technique, he made huge progress. This benefit is also reflected in the ligation and suturing process.
When using the needle holder to clamp the surgical needle, it was more handleable and flexible than before.
Not to mention tying knots.
When using forceps to pick up the suture thread, each pick was accurate; circling and knotting were as if aided by divine power.
The knots made were sturdier and neater.
Moreover, the force exerted on the wound during the knotting process was significantly lessened.
This was, undoubtedly, a tremendous improvement.
The highest realm of knotting is to tie various knots steadily on a puff of cotton without moving it an inch.
He certainly couldn’t do that right now.
But this was a big step forward in that direction.
“Alright, clean up and get ready to go off work! Doctor Fu should be arriving soon.” Dr. Xu had already taken the lead in removing his gloves and tossing his mask into the trash can.
His gaze turned to Zhou Can.
“Xiao Zhou, are you going to work overtime tonight?”
“I really hope that Dr. Zhou can stay and work overtime!” Doctor Fu just happened to walk into the operating room at this moment, and he eagerly answered for Zhou Can.
“Ha ha, Doctor Fu’s attitude towards Xiao Zhou has changed quite a bit!” Dr. Xu joked with a laugh.
He was strict in front of junior doctors but jovial with his peers; sometimes, he was quite cheerful.
“Heh, if anyone is to blame, it’s only because Dr. Zhou is too outstanding! It was fortunate he was here last night, otherwise there would have been big trouble.”
Doctor Fu still had a lingering fear when mentioning the events of the previous night.
Jin Mingxi and Tang Ling immediately pricked up their ears.
From Doctor Fu’s words, it seemed that Zhou Can had made significant contributions last night.
Tang Ling was alright; she just admired Zhou Can a lot and thought he was exceptionally outstanding.
But Jin Mingxi felt a real sense of pressure.
The gap between him and Zhou Can seemed to be widening again.
“Dr. Zhou, will you stay and work overtime? Don’t worry, it won’t be voluntary overtime, I will apply for overtime pay for you.” Doctor Fu’s gaze landed on Zhou Can’s face.
Whether to stay for overtime, he still had to ask Zhou Can himself.
“Of course, I am willing! As long as you don’t mind me causing you trouble!”
Zhou Can had planned it all out.
He could probably work about twenty days of overtime a month.
For the remaining ten days, he would practice dissecting mice in the dormitory.
Those medical skills that couldn’t be improved in the operating room certainly couldn’t be neglected.
He had to find a way to keep up with them.
“Don’t worry at all. You are reliable and dedicated, with strong surgical and diagnostic abilities; staying would not only cause no trouble but also be a great help to me. Today, in front of Dr. Xu, I’ll say it again, whenever I’m on duty, as long as you want to work overtime, you are welcome to come. You can leave whenever you want to.”
Doctor Fu repeated these words for the second time.
It showed that inviting Zhou Can to help was not mere superficial courtesy but sincere.
Zhou Can had made achievements yesterday, gaining preliminary trust from Doctor Fu.
Today was a good opportunity to stay and extend that trust.
“Hello, Dr. Xu!”
Doctor Lin had followed Doctor Fu in.
He just hadn’t had the chance to speak.
Now that the opportunity had come, he hurried to greet Dr. Xu.
“Uh-huh!”
Dr. Xu just nodded authoritatively.
“Xiao Zhou, work hard. Keep my phone number; I rarely turn off my phone; it’s on 24/7. Call me anytime if there’s a problem.” Dr. Xu was probably worried about Zhou Can making mistakes.
Leaving his phone number, in case of an emergency, he could rush over to help Zhou Can clean up the mess.
“Thank you, Teacher!”
Zhou Can hurriedly saved Dr. Xu’s phone number.
“Do you use WeChat, Teacher? Could we add each other?”
“Sure, search by my phone number.”
Dr. Xu was very kind towards him.
Everyone watching as the two senior doctors showed such care for the newcomer Zhou Can, felt genuinely envious.
After adding each other as WeChat friends, just before leaving, Dr. Xu advised, “Call in case of emergency. I might not see messages on WeChat in time, which could delay the rescue.”
By now, even a fool could see Dr. Xu’s care for Zhou Can.
For a resident doctor in training to receive such attention and protection from this Chief Level doctor with special status was indeed an incredibly fortunate thing.