In the rush and crush of your daily practice, you may sometimes find yourself a little short on tenderness or empathy. Some of you seem to be born with more compassion than others.
Some may have to work on it and practice living in the other person’s shoes to really get the hang of this. As a healthcare professional, you are working with people and need to be sensitive to making a positive experience for them.
Suggestions
Here are some tips and examples from some of our clients with respect to providing the caring, compassionate environment for the patients, clients and staff:
- The ‘waiting room’ is referred to as the ‘greeting room’. The whole idea is that patients/clients are there to be taken care of, not to wait.
- When you are finished treating a patient, walk them out to the front and help them into their coat and shake their hand and tell them that it has been a pleasure to serve them. Many patients/clients will say, “No, it has been my pleasure.”
- Laugh, have fun, make the experience in your practice be a positive and pleasurable one. Focus on talking about positive things with the patients/clients rather than discussing bad news.
- When a patient/client says, “I hate to complain…,” say: “No, it is not a complaint — it is a concern.”
- Keep in mind that your practice is not all about making money; it is to deliver dedicated service. Work at that every day and you will do very well financially. Just put the emphasis on the service.
- Create a pleasant environment of nice music, pictures on the walls, comfortable chairs, coffee, current magazines.
- It’s all about the patients/clients knowing that you care. Let them know that you do.
Staff Are Important Too
Notice that staff are very much included in the above statement. Stressed, unhappy staff don’t deliver quality care. Creating a stress-free and cheerful working environment will not only attract patients but also good staff. Plus it will help you keep them.
The staff can examine their own actions and interactions with patients/clients and compare themselves to the ideals set out in your mission statement. They can ask themselves when they mishandle something: Did that action provide the best quality care to our patients? Then they can work out how to do it better next time. Good staff are pretty self-correcting when they know what is expected of them.
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