Quit apologizing for perfectionism

June 20th, 2011Software2 Comments

My 4 month old and I have been rather ill and it became so worrisome that we went to urgent care.  Turns out it’s a little bronchitis and nothing that a little Z-pack couldn’t solve. We were the last patients of the night and we made our way to the 24 hour pharmacy. I turned in my prescriptions and wandered the vitamin aisles. Then a page came over the loudspeaker… “Mrs. DeVita, please come to the pharmacy counter”. I was very much ready to get my pills and go. But no, we were not so lucky.

Finally the doctor called back. The dose was incorrect and he told her the correct amount. The doctor didn’t even apologize.

Errors happen. Human errors happen. Some errors have graver consequences than others. Had the pharmacist at Rite Aid not been uber-careful, she would have given my 4 month old infant the dose for a 5 year old child. Computers can and do save lives.  The pharmacist explained that she hadn’t seen my baby and was perfectly ready to give the prescriptions but the screen flashed “OVERDOSE, OVERDOSE”. I’m so grateful for her careful attention and that RiteAid’s pharmacy system did it’s job. She apologized to me for being such a nitpicker, but I stopped her.

 

Please don’t ever apologize for doing a good job and striving for perfection.

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2 Comments

  1. Are you sorry for what you do? says:
    June 20, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    [...] another view on being focused on doing a good job.  UberGeekGirl had an experience she posted here that she had recently… the consequences for her poor baby could have been disastrous.  Did the [...]

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  2. alyse hart says:
    July 18, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    I agree–great points. Perfectionism makes us check, double check and it’s not a bad thing. I think I like attentive better. Perfectionism besides at drug stores leads to foot dragging for me.

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