Chapter 1117 - 832: That Friend

In the conversation Director He received right after finishing her outpatient clinic, the dean seemed to want to understand the current situation of the on-site consultants.

However, as soon as this sentence was uttered, it seemed to target not the group of on-site consultants, but Nan Zhubin as an individual case.

Fortunately, Director He was not surprised by this situation.

Or rather, the reason she chose not to explain in the conversation but purposely went to the dean’s office for a confrontation was precisely to handle the current situation.

Director He paused in silence and then spoke slowly: "Dean, I’ve been busy with appointments all morning, so I might speak bluntly, please forgive me."

Start with courtesy before advancing.

The dean was slightly taken aback, his expression seemed a bit hesitant.

After thinking about it, he picked up the teapot; although Director He hadn’t touched the teacup since entering, the dean still added a few drops to her cup.

Then the dean tentatively revealed a gentle expression and said, "It’s fine, you go ahead."

Director He straightened up a bit: "In the first few years since the center was established, we only had a few therapists officially stationed, each one was working at full capacity. Not to mention a few got burned out, even therapists needed therapy, you’re aware of this situation, right?"

The dean blinked, this was an answer to a different question.

"You see... you’re bringing this up again. We..."

"So you do remember." Director He didn’t give the dean much chance to speak, "Later you needed me to do administrative work, conduct lectures, do collaborative projects, I went out and made our name known. Yet we still have only added two more positions compared to before, right?"

"Oh dear, oh dear, here you go again..."

Director He continued to interrupt: "Of course, I won’t talk about staffing since that can’t be helped — but I do mean to talk about hiring contract workers. Our hospital pays so little for consultation compared to outside institutions, having an official position might be okay because contract workers still hope to become permanent, right?"

"But after all these years, how many contract workers have come, and how many have left? How many have turned permanent, or even had the chance to?"

Director He leaned forward: "I’ll just get straight to the point, Xiao Wang in our department has been here for two years, and can absolutely earn a four-figure consultation fee per hour outside. Right now, he doesn’t have a permanent position and has several ongoing long-term cases he cannot transfer, wasting his talents here, which you know, right?"

The dean was almost forgetting why he had called Director He here, waving his hand frantically: "Oh dear, this is what you mentioned at the last meeting, I couldn’t do anything then..."

"Fine, even contract workers are hard to find, let’s say we train them ourselves if there’s no other way, cultivate psychological consultants, right? But the first batch of consultants we trained, not many stayed with us; Clinical Psychology, Sleep Medicine, Psychosomatic, Inpatient Department, etc., all demand psychological consultants to assist in treatment, and took away some consultants from the candidates we trained, you’re aware of this, right? Have I complained about it?"

"Yes, yes, I know Xiaohe, you’ve worked hard and it’s been unfair to you too..." Cold sweat began to gather on the dean’s forehead.

How did this conversation morph into the current state?

"And then, in the past two years, the policy from above has been to cut costs. Our hospital’s legitimate therapists were already making shares comparable to consulting assistants outside, and now another cost cut. Fine, policy is policy and I comply, right?"

"But this situation only makes it harder to retain consultants, who primarily use our platform to accumulate consultation hours and leave as soon as they get their hour-proof, this situation you’re aware of, right? I’ve told you about it, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes..." The dean was reduced to merely nodding.

"In this case, I finally — notice I say finally — managed to contact Teacher Bai from before, and pleaded for a — notice it was begged for — a capable, experienced on-site consultant."

Having said so much, Director He took a deep breath: "I feel, age really isn’t of such importance, right."

The dean neither nodded nor agreed at this point, just raised his hand saying "Oh dear, oh dear."

"After all, being just a first-year grad student, it would be okay if they had worked for a few years and returned for further education, it’s just that I heard they might not even be 25 years old, which is why I came over to ask."

"What’s wrong with being 25? Many therapists who tested into the staffing are this age, right?"

Teacher He finally caught his breath, took the teacup in front of him and drank it all in one go, the dean quickly refilled it.

"I was just asking, these things could have been explained over the phone, but you’ve specifically come over..."

"You have a reputation for being strict, if you let them stay, I certainly trust that. It’s just that they’re indeed quite young, I was just asking slightly."

The dean was calming Director He: "If someone from outside asks, I can explain it well — what if someone really checks?"

The previous excitement on Director He’s face quickly vanished.

Nan Zhubin’s issue truly could have been explained over the phone, while Director He came to discuss what could not be explained over the phone.

"Did someone from outside inquire about this? Who asked?"

The dean, who just seemed completely seized by Director He’s rhythm, immediately fell into silence: "No one asked, I just suddenly heard about this situation."

"Who did you hear it from?" Director He persisted without letting up.

Upon hearing this, the dean picked up the teacup in front of him, sipped it lightly, and was just about to speak.

"Why is it hard to speak about? Right now, the consultants in our center were all trained by me, right? And I can’t even find an on-site consultant now? So many consultants, how many can I retain in a year? Even if they stay, other departments..."

The dean quickly put down the teacup: "Oh dear, there you go again... you’re too sensitive, no one specifically inquired, really!"

Director He scrutinized the dean’s expression for two seconds.

"Really?"

"Really, just a friend called a few days ago, saying they wanted to recommend their student to our place to be a consultant, to gain some case experience."

Director He’s expression briefly relaxed for a moment, then furrowed again: "What did you say?"

"I certainly said no way. Generally our consultants are our self-trained consultants, or they’re contract workers, right? That’s how I responded."

The dean filled his own teacup, picked it up and blew at the scalding tea, hiding his expression: "But then they said they heard that a student had already done this and that’s why they asked — then I sought you to understand the specifics, right."

Director He realized something, staring at the leisurely sipping dean for two seconds.