The Conflict

"Don't forget to note down any problems with the new health log" Cherie said enthusiastically "The computer guys want our input and are happy to make changes" Cherie waltzed out the room, her orders delivered. I turned back to the monitor, my brow creased in concentration. We had four hundred students at our boarding school and we still had three hundred and ninety still to put on the computer system.

The new computer record keeping system for the health center was good, but my fingers kept on tripping over the keyboard as I silently cursed the Americans. The problem was that when inputting patient entries for current events eg Simon has a headache, given paracetamol, the system accepted the regular system of date eg day, month, year. But when I went to put in the patients previous health information to update their overall health information eg vaccination records, it accepted the American date system ie month, day, then year.

I did as Cherie had instructed and noted the small fault with the system, feeling secure in the knowledge that my fumbling was serving a purpose, that is, to make the system better. Little did I know that a storm was brewing.

The next fault I spotted was when inputting the patients height and weight there was no place to put a date, an easy mistake to make and one easily rectified. I noted the glitch and got back to work.

"How's it going" without knocking Cherie barged into the room and stood over my shoulder, reading the information on my monitor. "Ah, fine Cherie" I stammered, "Taking a bit longer than I should, but slowly getting there" I swung round in my chair, coming face to breast with Cherie. A shudder passed through me and I looked up, our eyes making contact. "Why is it taking so long? I'm racing through them. Once you get going, it's quite easy" she sounded sympathetically disbelieving, but her eyes said 'You useless bastard'. "Well I have a couple of small things to improve upon" I suggested. "Oh, really, the system seems pretty fine to me. What's the matter?"

"Well, it's not really a big deal, but the system uses two different date systems. One part uses Amercian and the other uses the normal way" I then demonstrated on the computer exactly what I was talking about. "Oh, didn't notice that. Hasn't been a problem for me. Just be careful with the date and you'll be fine." The matter of the date was now dismissed.

"What's the other matter?" she asked. I turned back to the computer, "Oh, it's nothing" I said, don't worry about it" I said reluctantly. "No, I want to hear it, anything to make the job easier" Cherie's smile never faded, her false cheer more see through than ever. "Well, it would be good to have a date next to the height and weight" I tentatively suggested. "Oh, don't worry about that. We height and weight them on admission, so the date is the same for everyone" she said. "Ah, but the ones who have a completed physical, when we transfer that data into the computer, we need to put down what date the physical was done, it's sometimes months old." The smile faded at last "Yeah, but you can just write it at the top, where it says General Condition." "But everything else has a date, so why not this. I'm only trying to make our job easier" I said. "Don't interrupt me, I haven't finished speaking" Cherie brushed back her hair with a quick backhand movement then crossed her arms in a defensive posture. "There's no point. Just write it in the top. It's not that important" With that Cherie, my colleague, not my boss, left the room.

The fun and games had just begun.