Recently started working at a hospital 5 days ago, and signed up as an admin assistant to handle patients discharge and registration, etc. Along with basic paper work and data entry. First two days was pleasant and colleagues were super kind and friendly, and I was adapting well. Suddenly, today I was transferred to a new ward that is very different from my previous isolation ward. I was sent to a general ward where it is more busy and there is very little isolation within patients.
Along with the sudden transfer, I was very stressed when my new supervisor started being very aggressive to me. I have a bad history of chronic anxiety and I react badly to triggers. As the workplace routine was different from my previous post, I followed the routine in my new place and got scolded by the SV, with her shouting in my ear which caused me a lot of alarm.
On top of that, when I keyed in a data entry wrongly (as I was following the previous post’s format), she hit my hand (not too hard but still pain could be felt), and it triggered me very badly, to the point where I had two anxiety attacks and I threw up in the toilet and broke down. I am extremely sensitive to harsh verbal and physical attacks due to my past experiences and this was very alarming for me.
After which I was also informed that as I was working a PM shift , I had to do para nursing duties (like cleaning patients, feeding and carrying them etc.) Which was NOT informed in my contract, and I am uncomfortable with as I am generally quite a frail person and I’m living with two elderly, so they are very against me having contact with the patients as much as I don’t wish to say this in a bad way.
The supervisor further added that since the PM shift already has enough admin assistants, I will be mainly doing the nursing duties which I was very displeased about, as she was indirectly saying that I am doing the job of a FT nurse while severely underpaid under the job title of an admin assistant. This is something out of my job scope and I have no experience with, much less being comfortable and willing to do it.
After which, I called my hiring agent and told her about the events as well as the changes, and she aggressively replied that her other colleague had informed me about the said necessary nursing duties needed through a phone call before. I had no recollection about this, and my chats with her and the contract stated no such things, other than to do ad-hoc duties, but not to totally change my whole job scope!!
When I asked to be transferred back to my original post, she also said that she won’t do so if I can’t agree to do the nursing duties. But back at my old post, NONE of the admin assistants had to do them because we were simply not trained and not allowed to touch the infectious patients. FYI, there was also another hired temp staff that didn’t show up since the first day of work as she was on indefinite leave. Why couldn’t they just have had me replace her than to waste our time too?
I’m really frustrated as I can’t terminate my contract because the agent had mentioned that I will have to pay liquidated damages (which I can’t afford because I come from a very disadvantaged background and I’m already working hard for this…). I would like to seek advice from fellow healthcare workers or people in the knows in general as I also reached out to my peers and they just felt like they were exploiting and bullying me since I’m a young temp staff. Is there any way I can reach out for help such as from MOM? I’m really crushed and disheartened by this after a wonderful first two day of work and then being mistreated like this after.
PS: please don’t call me sensitive or a strawberry as it’s very invalidating of my trauma and I have the rights to feel that way too. I’m generally a very resilient person but I don’t think these forms of harassment are acceptable.