I'm on the SWAT team!

No, I'm not crashing in doors and arresting people. I've been assigned to the new SWAT team at work. It stands for Study Work-up Attack Team (I think). I am very excited about this. All the parts of my job that I don't like are going away (data, PKs, shipment, monitors) and I will be doing study start ups only. I will be assigned new studies as they come in and then be responsible for getting them open. Once they're open and the SIV is done, I hand them over to the team appropriate RC and move on to the next one. This is going to be great for me.

What I don't like is having to leave my team and the fact that my work is going to be dumped on someone else. I will keep the studies that I have that are closed to accrual but the two I have that are active (including the dreaded 0630) and the two new ones will be handed off to somebody else.

This is like my light at the end of the tunnel. I cried all the way home from work on Monday and prayed and asked God to open a door of opportunity so that I could do something other than what I'm doing but still earn the same money. How was I to know that He'd been working on opening this door way before I asked!

I have gotten so bored with doing data and PKs and shipments. I was wrapped up in myself miserable and seeing no way out especially in this economy. There's nothing I can go do that is different and still make what I'm making now and keeping my salary is vital to support my family.

This whole SWAT team thing was a shock to me and the rest of the CTSR. It was sprung on the newly appointed SWAT team members first and then the other RCs and then the nurses. While I'm excited, I understand why my team is upset and if I was on the other side I would be upset too. I would feel I had been demoted even though leadership assured everyone this was not the case. SWAT team members haven't been promoted and there's no raise involved just a shifting of responsibilities.

I think the rollout could've been handled a bit better. I think the shock of the whole thing is what's got everyone so upset. I think if they had rolled it out at a staff meeting as something they were going to try and asked for interested RCs to contact them it would have gone over better. They might have had people in mind they wanted on the team and chances are those people would've expressed interest. I know I would have. At least then it would have been viewed as a choice. I think my team would have been happy for me if I had moved on to this like moving to a new job. Instead, my team is upset (not at me) and there are no real answers forthcoming about how this transition is going to happen and who is going to be taking on my current workload. I hope we get some answers soon because February is fast approaching (come on racing and baseball!) and as much as I'm looking forward to my new responsibilities, I'd like to know the plan on how and to who I will hand over my current workload.

I've got a lot of clean up to do between now and then. I'm going to be having Angel doing a lot of sorting and filing to help me get the studies I'm going to hand over into good shape.

Another good thing is I am not physically going anywhere. I will stay in my cave and be available to answer questions and do training. I really think these responsibilities are going to be much less stressful on me and I can't wait to get started.