We have doubled our office staff this summer. That means four people instead of two sharing my front office space in the clinic. It is wonderful in so many ways. For one thing, we can accomplish a lot more with two more people on the nursing staff – – provided we can climb over one another to reach the patients.

We are operating in temporary quarters, so our traffic flow has never been ideal. Adding two more desks complicated things just a tad. The change has been hard for all four of us. No one has a comfy nest anymore, and none of us really know how to make it all work. And we are all making compromises like not going to the bathroom until we absolutely must so we don’t interrupt the person beside us who has to scoot in her chair and squish under her desk a little to let me pass.
So, we decided to innovate. We moved, sorted, compressed, consolidated and came up with a whole new floor plan. And the most amazing thing happened for me. My desk is in a much better position to receive patients when they walk in the door. By moving out of the comfort zone I’ve occupied for nearly four years, I found myself closer to the people and better able to serve.
I think that is pretty much the way it always goes with comfort zones. Once we leave them, we find a new and better world. (Plus, I’m right beside the bathroom now.)