What are your thoughts on Disney or AIDET "customer service" training?

Nurses Relations

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I'm wondering - have any of you gone through either the AIDET or the Disney "customer service" training/in-services?

If so, what were your feelings about them? (I sat through an AIDET in-service that made me queasy - I agree we should be nice to people, but the WAY it was presented was so condescending and info-mercialish.)

And did you think they were expending energy in the wrong place, as opposed to trying to tackle other, much more salient problems in patient care, such as poor nurse-patient ratios?

The customer service emphasis seems ominous to me, since it seems to place even more burden on the nurse, while ignoring the fact that if nursing units were better staffed, then a "customer service" mentality would occur more naturally anyway, since nurses wouldn't be running around like so many beheaded chickens.

There also seems to be a growing impression that hospitals are more like "hospitality houses" as opposed to places you go to in order to get your medical problem treated or stablized.

So, on the one hand we have understaffing and frazzled nurses, and, on the other, a contradictory expectation that those understaffed, frazzled nurses should be even MORE customer-friendly, despite their understaffing. It doesn't make sense to me.

I am not an active nurse yet, so I could have a wrong impression. But that AIDET in-service did NOT sit well with me, especially if it is an omen of things to come.

Or is it that EVERYONE is less customer-friendly these days, and we all need a reminder of what it is to act civilly? I don't know. But the reminder should come in a manner that assumes we are adults, not children.

Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, PH, CM.

Emmanuel, I wasn't saying that customer service is a criteria for the hospital, I think most hospitals place quality of care first. But the consumer finds customer service important. Many don't know how to qualify quality of care, but they do know a bad experience (hospital stay) can be more pleasant if the staff is nice to them. Studies have found that patients are less likely to complain if staff is nice.

Oh I understand and I agree. My comment wasn't directed at you so much as to my frustration that the people who DO know how to qualify quality care seem to want to put less emphasis on it.

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
Let's remember that at Disney World if you curse loudly and throw your tray at someone you get escorted out of the park. Same thing goes for throwing urine and feces :icon_roll.

In 22 years of nursing, I have politely listened and go about my job the way I always have. Never a complaint against me. Be respectful, and close the door when you need too!

Very good point.:up:

The underlying theme (and even stated by some of the speakers) was that so long as we smiled and played nice, they really didn't care if we knew what the hell we're doing.

I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case, unfortunately, esp. since there was some oft-mentioned study - I think from the late 1990s - about how patients are less inclined to sue when they have a nice rapport with their health care provider. And then, of course, patient satisfaction ratings seem to be becoming the gold standard for "quality care"...

So, reimbursement, plus keep the customers comin', plus keep the customers from suin' - these seem to be the orders of the day.

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

So, reimbursement, plus keep the customers comin', plus keep the customers from suin' - these seem to be the orders of the day.

I applaud your insight, marie-francoise.

Just remember these pieces from the mission statement (or vision statement, or strategic principles, or whatever XYZ organization wants to call it) are not bad in and of themselves:

The customers gotta keep comin' -- a hospital is a tremendous investment in infrastructure - an empty bed or unused equipment is by definition a financial liability.

Keep the customers from suin' -- no individual practitioner or organization can function well under the cloud of litigation.

Reimbursement -- bottom line -- no money, no hospital, no staff, no equipment.

I share some of your indignation but remember: this customer-service/relationship building stuff is ingrained in every industy, not just health care. You can expend energy on the obvious disconnect between the fluffiest of the customer service BS and the real priorities of patient care every time you get a memo, email, or have to attend an inservice ... or you can momentarily roll your eyes and then return to expending energy on what really matters.

I agree. I know that 'being nice' is important. I can understand the principle of going that extra mile in the name of 'customer service'.

But unlike other industries, we are unique in that sometimes we must annoy and inconvenience our 'customers' in order to fulfill our duty to them. We're going to perform unpleasant (and sometimes painful) procedures on them, we're going to wake them up at un-Godly hours to assure they receive the care they deserve. We're going to delay attending to their requests at times when another 'customer' has a more urgent need--- there's no 'first come, first serve' in a hospital setting.

Therein lies the disconnect and where administration is dropping the ball. By encouraging the public to equate hospital care with a five-star hotel or restaurant service we're only setting ourselves up for even more frustration and unhappy 'customers'.

I am a little lost, forgive me if I sound silly.

You had to do a Disney customer service training course? My husband works in Guest relations at Disney, which is their customer service dept. Seems weird that nurses would have to go through the same customer service training classes that he did.

I am a little lost, forgive me if I sound silly.

You had to do a Disney customer service training course? My husband works in Guest relations at Disney, which is their customer service dept. Seems weird that nurses would have to go through the same customer service training classes that he did.

I did the AIDET training, or at least the version implemented by the unit I was on. Subsequently, I spoke to a nurse who told me his hospital was using the Disney model to teach their nurses about customer service. There was another thread on this site that mentioned this also. And there is also the book about "if Disney ran your hospital". So I'm curious if others have been through Disney-based training for nursing customer service, or if others have gone through AIDET, and what they thought of either.

BTW, Amen to Emmanuelle Goldstein's post, above. Health care is definitely a different beast from other lines of work - why "health care as big business" just does not innately ring right, although we still acknowledge the inevitable importance of money. Striking the balance between necessary money-making and maintaining/ensuring patient's health is needed. Difficult to do. Why health care reform continues to be such an important, yet tricky, issue for politicians.

Specializes in LTC.

I think the acronym AIDET is fine; it's what we should be doing anyway, and what we're taught. As far as all the other Disney bells and whistles: it definitely works for Disney (I love those theme parks and the customer service is part of the awesome experience). Theme parks, restaurants, and other forms of leisure activities afford us the chance to take a break from every day life. It's why they're there.

Hospitals, nursing homes, and medical clinics are not there for the patients' entertainment. To coin a phrase I read somewhere, a frosted doggie BM is not a wedding cake; it's a frosted doggie BM. Would a client rather have top-notch medical care because the staff has time to focus solely on that or mediocre medical care because the staff is too busy trying to work around their Snow White costumes and trying to remember the lyrics to "Be our Guest?" :icon_roll

Do our patients deserve to be treated with dignity and respect? Absolutely. Is it in the client's best interest to have the Disney carpet rolled out? Not with the staffing ratios most of us face. :angryfire

Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

Even on days when our nurse to patient ratio is good, sometimes we have nurses that are curt/rude/uncommunicative.

I think it's ridiculous that nurses, of all professions, are being taught customer service. we who are the most 'caring' and 'trusted' of professions. why is it even being brought up? Because pts are unhappy with our services; they feel 'uncared' for. possibly this is due to the decreased time we are able to spend with them, the small amount of education we can give them, all our other pts, how frazzled we become because our job is stressful and there's always more you can do, few breaks, worry over pts, worry over ourselves, and the million other reasons nurses burn out.

nurses don't need customer service training--anyone willing to work with the sick and disabled has to be compassionate and self-sacrificing. the industry needs to change to help nurses do what we do best--care for our pts.

Actually I will not appreciate it if I am ever a patient as I will know it's a phony script. I would be more concerned the nurses are paying more attention to this than my actual health status...

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