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

[marie-francoise]

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.

[Riseupandnurse]

I think customer service is great for nonprofessional employees. But it is an insult to a nurse. The patient-nurse relationship goes so far beyond customer service. I would not give up all breaks and meals for a "customer." I would not be insulted and treated badly by customers when I could get another job. But for my PATIENTS, I as a professional nurse will do absolutely everything I can. I don't need inservices to tell me that because I take pride in my profession.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

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!

would that we had it as good as the disney employees! i'd love to have an escort off the premises for all yellors, cursers, tray throwers, and urine and feces finger painters!

[50isthenew30]

I've worked patient care in two different hospitals, and my son was a transporter for two years at one of those facilities. It's gotten ridiculous how hospitals try to portray themselves as gorgeous hotel-like facilities w/ concierge service (no kidding) etc etc. In one place the transporters weren't even allowed to wear gloves while moving patients because it was thought to "offend" some of the "guests"

Yes, welcome to Chez(fill in the name of your hospital). We hope you enjoy your stay. Please ignore the ORs, code blues, and bedpans, and SICK PEOPLE you might accidentally encounter while staying with us.

[tk3100]

I think the hospitals are paying mega-bucks to teach "customer service" to the staff, when 99% of us would do this genuinely if we weren't so busy putting out a thousand little fires. The purpose would be better served with improved recruitment and retention tactics.

[Katie82, RN]

I was a practice administrator for a medical system in Maryland that, although they win honors every year, has a rep for poor customer service. I had to send my staff to this training. It is great, and the training (2-day for us) was fun, or at least my staff thought it was. We called it MAGIC. Did it help? For a short time... The benefit of it is that it really makes you aware of how people treat each other, and through role playing, you get an opportunity to be on the receiving end. Some people are just plain ignorant and rude, and I had a few, so those didn't benefit. But I would say the overall benefit was positive.

[Katie82, RN]

To 50isthenew30: I have a MBA in HC Mgt, and I can tell you that healthcare is big business. Hospitals fall all over themselves trying to be competetive because there is a large consumer group bearing big bucks that will go elsewhere if they don't like a hospital. And the #1 criteria for selection is customer service.

[EmmaG, RN]

Funny. I'd think it would be quality of care.

Silly me.

[marie-francoise]

It seems like so much "polishing of the turd" to me.

Patients see the sheen and want to come back to that hospital, maybe. But whether or not their condition was handled appropriately there is another matter. Yes, ACTUAL quality of care seems to be a secondary concern of hospitals.

And I understand that hospitals have to be worried about the bottom line, and sometimes what's good for the goose ($ for hospitals) is good for the gander ($ allows hospitals to run, and therefore is beneficial to patients in that basic way), but health care is one setting where profits should not soley rule. And what profits are made should be applied more constructively (i.e., staffing, and not hiring expensive consultants who teach things that are basic anyway, etc.).

[banditrn]

I always gave very good 'patient care', and did everything I could to be helpful to their families. In the first 10 years at the hospital, I had two wonderful supervisors, and it was their expectation that we did everything possible to make the patient stay as 'therapeutic' as possible.

Then along came a new CEO, and the DISNEYLAND model.:smackingf Very expensive!!

It's my opinion that not everyone deals with people the same way - and all the seminars in the world aren't going to change that. Things went downhill after that.

They then started doing everything they could to get rid of the older, experienced nurses, and replacing them with the cutesie, young things with the eternal toothy grins pasted on their faces. Immaterial that some of these gals were lousy nurses - as long as they flashed their pearly whites at the CEO, he was happy.

[letina]

"All fur coat and no knickers" is what I say

[Mulan]

would that we had it as good as the disney employees! i'd love to have an escort off the premises for all yellors, cursers, tray throwers, and urine and feces finger painters!

yeah, and don't you just love those people that deliberately fart in your face

[marie-francoise]

I always gave very good 'patient care', and did everything I could to be helpful to their families. In the first 10 years at the hospital, I had two wonderful supervisors, and it was their expectation that we did everything possible to make the patient stay as 'therapeutic' as possible.

Then along came a new CEO, and the DISNEYLAND model.:smackingf Very expensive!!

It's my opinion that not everyone deals with people the same way - and all the seminars in the world aren't going to change that. Things went downhill after that.

They then started doing everything they could to get rid of the older, experienced nurses, and replacing them with the cutesie, young things with the eternal toothy grins pasted on their faces. Immaterial that some of these gals were lousy nurses - as long as they flashed their pearly whites at the CEO, he was happy.

Ay ay ay! Awful...