For those of you who use scripting, tell us what you think about it and when you use it.
I was surprised to find that I have a few "scripts" that I regularly use and the technique works quite well to get across ideas or messages.
I use scripting when I'm doing an admission:
"Please be aware that you will be assessed by a nurse at least every 8 hours and we will take your vital signs that frequently as well."
"Please be aware that you have Patient Rights and you also have Patient Responsibilities..."
"Please be aware that your doctor will base most of your treatment on how you feel and what your lab work says about your condition. That means that if the doc comes in at 0600, he expects the Lab results to be on your chart. Which means that the Lab will have to draw your blood at ungodly hours of the night....."
"Is there anything else I can do for you....I have the time".
That would often be stretching the truth, unfortunately.... LOL
Ugh, I read that link and I would run screaming from a hospital where the people talked to me like that - and both I and several of my family members are kinda sickly, so I know from hospitals. Especially the elevator part, and the apologies. Those were even worse than the "Would you like to start your day with a large carafe of fresh {brand} orange juice or tangy {brand} raspberry iced tea today?" we had to use when I worked at dennys . . .
I looked at the link too and it sounds like a hospital trying to get "magnet status". I would not be able to follow a "script" and sound sincere. And if I were a patient or family member of a patient at a place that everybody talked to me wherever I went, all saying the same phony-sounding things, I would find it annoying and unappealing.
As for the "is there anything else I can do for you, I have the time", what if you say it but you really don't have the time, and what they want from you is to "just sit here and visit with me". But you have meds due, and call lights going off, blood infusing, a couple of patients whom you feel might be deteriorating and you've been checking on them frequently----I'm not trying to be negative here, but if you say it, you have to mean it, and I don't see how that is possible sometimes.
hmmm..I guess I don't find I get too insulted. I think the "artificialness" of it is not unlike the artificialness of "active listening" when people first start using that communication technique.
Quite frankly, if they aren't too intrusive, I don't mind if someone asks me if they can help me with something. It's certainly easy enough to say "no", or "maybe in a bit". And it's nice to know that I can *expect* someone to come around and ask me when I'm ready!
Scripting, to me, is an acknowledgment that we all grow up with different training; some people may not have been raised with good manners--and maybe there are really good and understandable reasons why they didn't. I think it's important to understand that people come with different values and different cultures--just like the famous example of looking someone in the eye. Great in the U.S.; not so hot in with folks from Asian and Amerind background.
I think it's helpful to become far less sensitive and insulted to questions that others actually may need and find helpful.
This link pretty much sums it up. I had already learned how to communicate effectively prior to "scripting" being all the rage at a hospital where I work. I refused to do it, as did most of us there. Pretty silly, IMO.
"Nay", I do not use scripting; and after looking at this link, I too, would run, not walk from any hospital that expected me to participate in this "Stepford Nurse" scenario!
As a professional, I do find this insulting and condescending. This is clearly some consulting firm that was hired by the hospital to improve it's rating and to further the whole "patient is a customer" concept. Consulting firms have no idea what the day to day running of a nursing unit entails.
Sadly, yes, many people are not pleasant, nor do they have manners or common sense....and I refer to patients just as much as I refer to some hospital workers.
Nevertheless, I do not plan on engaging in this behavior. I am perfectly competent in being polite and explaining what needs to be done and offerring assistance as needed without some "suit" whispering in my ear a pre-planned "script".
It feels pretty fake to me. I have for close to 30 years asked if there's anything I can do for you as I leave a room. NOW it seems fake.
"I have the time." Do they have a policy on lying?
Safeway: I go there once in a blue moon, early in the morning when there's no milk in the house for my mocha. Along with scripting, people (in general) need to be able to assess a person's mood. At that time of day (before the coffee) I don't in any way look like I want to have a conversation with anybody. I don't want them to greet me in a perky way, I don't want them to ask if I found everything (all I wanted was milk); and I don't really care to be greeted by my first name (as if they know me, which they don't). Good reason to pay with cash. I just want the milk so I can get home and begin my day the way I usually do. You'd think that someone could put the entire picture together (early in the morning; coat thrown on over flannel pj's like the kids wear to school, hair not brushed, etc.) and figure out this person is not a good candidate for the perky treatment!
Likewise, didn't we learn in nursing school to assess each patient's needs on an individual basis? Scripting sure takes care of that part of it.
Where do ideas like this come from? And then our poor nurse manager is given the task of trying to sell this to us. We know it has come directly from the top.
It's as if we don't already bust our butts to do our very best. What an insult.
And, yes, I did have my coffee this morning, and no I didn't have to go Safeway first. This topic just sets me off!
We've benchmarked such companies as Ritz Carlton and Disney and have seen the huge impact that consistent scripting has on satisfaction scores.
Well I don't know about you, but my expectations of health care facilities are different from my expectations of hotels and entertainment centres. I don't expect individualised attention, for one thing, and I also don't have any expectation that they'll save my life at SeaWorld.
There are some 'scripts' that I've realised I use - if I get caught up and don't answer a patient's bell promptly I usually say "I'm sorry for the wait, what can I do for you?" but I think that's just good manners.
I can't ever see myself saying " I am giving you a warm blanket for your comfort"! Although some of my patients are idiots (I'm not American, so I don't think that counts as a HIPAA violation!) I don't think they're morons. When I get blankets for patients it's either because they've asked for one or because I've said "Are you warm enough? Would you like a blanket?" I assume that their short-term memory is long enough (unless there's evidence to the contrary) that they haven't forgotten that between when I leave the room to get the blanket and when I return a minute later!
And I'm not so keen on grinning phlebotomists - my patients think of them as little vampires already :)
I agree that most of ot sounds like commonsense and good manners, and I agree that those qualities are regrettably not as widespread as we might like, but I also think that patients (and relatives) sometimes need to understand that they're satisfaction is not always going to be my highest priority. When I can, I'm pleased to make them cups of tea and search out an extra biscuit (Okay, 'pleased; is a slight exaggeration, but I'm happy to do it). But that's an optional extra. Flight attendants are seen as waitresses, but they're not there to pass out meals and, like a flight attendant, when someone's crashing you can just strap yourself into your seat and wait.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Scripting.......egads. Thank God my hospital still believes its nurses are professionals, not parrots!!
It just astounds me that some business types seem to think we have no brains, and worse yet, no manners. Like we were raised by wolves or something. Why do we have to be taught how to be nice to people?? Granted, some folks need a little help along that line, but certainly not everyone, and anyway, there are rude people in EVERY line of work.......not just health care.
And that line "I have the time".......how can a facility, in good conscience, force workers to say that when everyone knows they may NOT have the time when they've just gotten an admission or their post-op is crashing??!! :angryfire
So glad I don't work for an organization like that........I'm afraid I will have to quit nursing entirely if I am ever required to memorize a script, like an actor in a badly written play, instead of talking to my patients like one human being to another. Yeesh. :stone
MultipurposeRN
194 Posts
"Is there anything else I can do for you....I have the time".
That would often be stretching the truth, unfortunately.... LOL