As a leader, I use to always say that I would never ask my staff to do anything that I would not do myself. That is to say until I supervised Ms. Jane. Part of Ms. Jane’s job description included performing “digital stimulation” and many things come to mind. My scholastic, non-clinical brain immediately thought of hand massage wherein digital equated to finger(s) and stimulation was defined as massage. In reading the words, one may also think of poking someone or something or manipulating erotogenic areas of the human body.
One day, Ms. Jane called out sick and I decided that I would step in and take her assignment for the day. Arriving at the client’s home, I quickly discovered what digital stimulation is and its clinical application. A process to assist an individual to move their bowels. Not at all about their digits but more importantly what you need to do with yours.
That day—in that moment—I stopped saying “as a leader, you should never ask your staff to do something that you would not do yourself.” Next steps…I quickly called a nursing agency to fill in for Ms. Jane for the remainder of the day.
As a leader, you may have staff who are tasked with doing things that you would not do or are not licensed to do but the important thing is to remember to support them, appreciate them and guide them in all that they do. On a team, everyone has their role…and my role was not to perform digital stimulation.
