Dale McGarrigle
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Tensions continued to mount upon the doctors at York Memorial Hospital.
The Emerg nurses’ work-to-rule action to protest the changes implemented by Dr. Devi didn’t help matters on Transplant Season 3 Episode 7.
But their slowdown only brought to light problems that existed long before that.
The Oxford Dictionary defines the British concept of work to rule as “to follow official working rules and hours exactly to reduce output and efficiency, especially as a form of industrial action.”
Neeta Devi means well. She’s attempting to make the emergency department more comfortable for patients.
Also, Dr. Olsen, the medical director, and the board have given her the power to make changes to implement her policies.
But too many of those changes have fallen on the backs of the nursing staff, who make any hospital run as smoothly as it does by doing the little things off the books.
Hospitals profit by staying understaffed while expecting their workers to do more than the bare minimum for the good of their patients.
But the wheels fall off when a group does just what they are contractually obligated to do, such as the nurses during work to rule.
The nurses had all the power in this situation. A provincial (nay, countrywide) shortage of nurses meant that the hospital had to pay through the nose to hire traveling nurses, with only a handful qualified to work in Emerg.
The doctors felt the pinch when nurses weren’t busy attempting to fulfill their orders by any means necessary. And they didn’t like it a bit. That led to those clashes between Mags and Arnold, and Theo and Claire.
That’s likely what led to Mags’ harebrained idea to have doctors give up a percentage of their salaries so that the hospital could hire more nurses.
Devi should have shot down that idea harder, and it would return to bite her in the butt. But Mags has been one of Neeta’s precious few allies, so why alienate her?
Olsen was right, advising Devi not to try to make everyone happy. She’s doing that now, and it just isn’t working.
Give Neeta credit for realizing that what she was trying wasn’t working and buckling to the nurses. She must involve staff members to find a solution that fits her idealism and York’s reality.
Still, this isn’t likely the last time we’ll hear about her patient-centric philosophy. She can’t shove it down the staff’s throats, however nicely she does it.
Rather than worrying about and promoting a big-picture scheme for the hospital, Mags should have been concerned about her problems.
She should be home recovering instead of returning to work already in Emerg of all places. As intense as she is, Mags only knows full speed ahead; no wrist monitor will change that.
But, like the other physicians, Mags is accustomed to being catered to by nurses and other support staff. It’s much easier to keep your heart from racing if you can delegate.
Mags’ preoccupation with her heart made her too focused on determining what was wrong with Brock. Even after he told her that he was a highly sensitive person, she wouldn’t believe him and insisted on doing more testing than he wanted done.
The fact that her relationship with Bash was hitting roadblocks didn’t help matters at all.
One problem was that Bash was treating her like the porcelain doll she often appears to be after her cardiac crisis. Mags doesn’t want anyone treating her differently now, but that won’t happen.
A great example was her talk with June at the impromptu potluck dinner party. June dusted off her rarely-used people skills and attempted to bond with Mags, but they argued, and June ended up burning her injured (and, it turned out, infected) hand instead.
The biggest obstacle was how to handle the runaway Amira. Bash wanted to drag her back from Rania’s, caveman style. Mags wisely argued for him to give her some time to calm down.
But rather than just taking the win, Mags kept offering suggestions to him in front of their party guests, and he blew up, telling her she wouldn’t understand where he was coming from.
He’s right in that immigrants from a wartorn country are going to have a different experience than a woman crossing the border from Quebec. But they both could have handled their discussion better.
At work, after finally gaining some ground with Singh, Bash lost it again when June tattled on him after he went around her back and implied to Singh that Riley was his patient Zola’s family and they wanted surgery. Legally, she was not even close to being so.
It just comes down to their medical backgrounds. As a wartime surgeon, Bash is more concerned with results, whereas June opted for the safest course of treatment.
The gist of June’s talks at Mags and Neeta seemed to be, “No one gets me.” There’s some real emotion inside June, waiting to break free.
Finally came Theo, who might yet survive self-sabotage.
He told Devi that he wasn’t going to go on record as an abuser to appease his skittish ex-patient, Rebecca. She needs him as an attending badly enough that he may get away with that.
Then he did everything he could for sickle cell patient Solomon, going way outside the box to get him some temporary relief.
It took Claire, a nurse, to show him how to work the system and get Solomon some real treatment.
To watch how Devi’s policies develop, watch Transplant online.
Is Neeta taking the correct approach?
Who’s on a more dangerous path: Mags or Theo?
Did Bash do the right thing with Amira?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.