Baklava and Lunatics
A few minutes ago, I was invited to the sleep lab for some baklava, which one of the residents had brought in. On the counter was a box, about 18" x 18", full of rows various baklava. It looked like a garden. I could twine my mind in its rows all day.
This morning I went to Service Excellence Academy II, SEA2 for the seasoned. This involved a video of dramatic enactments of various employee-patient scenarios—how to act and how not to act. I had 12 hours of this when I started this job in June. This morning it was only an hour. This one themed itself on wizardry. A wizard taught young hospital employees the ways of service excellence, of moving from good to great, of making patients say "wow". I got a glossary of terms: "good to great", positivism, service excellence, teamwork, compassion, patience, tolerance, and enthusiasm. At the end, we learned that the guy wasn’t a wizard after all; he was an escaped mental patient. However, he did make us believe that we can break the cycle of negativism—if we just believe we can. There was a quiz and a survey to complete at the end, which I have to give to the neuroscience manager to prove my new skills.
I understand the purpose of these sessions. It’s important to keep in check, get a refresher boost to make sure people are treating each other and patients properly. At the same time I feel somewhat cocky about the whole thing. I guess I was raised with a sure degree of common courtesy and born with a similar degree of intuitive sense about how to treat people. For example, I can tell when someone is lost and unless I’m in space—it sometimes happens—it occurs to me to ask that person if I can help him or her out. This is whether I’m at work, out in the world, in traffic. Something that wrinkles my eyes is that during this kind of orientation session "the teachers" act like the tips they are giving are new ideas to practice at work. Something that wrinkles my whole face is that usually most of the people participating in these sessions act like these are new things to practice and apply at work.
What are these people like out in the world? Self-centered, high-strung people, who have difficulty making connections and who can hold only their part of the conversation is my guess. There are a lot of people out there who at first seem to be friendly, talkative people, when actually they are good only at talking. They never hear what the other party in the conversation has to say; they do not respond to the other party but instead either repeat what they already said or say something unrelated entirely. These are the people who treat these "service excellence" tips like new information to practice and learn. Smile at people, inform people. Hey, imagine what you yourself might want. The Golden Rule. Do unto others… For example, don’t hand the patient with an injured hand some crackers, a cup of juice, and some painkillers all at once, particularly when there is no table to set any of it on and you’re going to walk away. This is what happened when I went to the emergency room for my dog bite. I was sure to note it in my survey rating the ER’s performance.
Do I feel like I learned anything this morning? I do pay attention at these things. Re-hashing the rules of common courtesy is never a bad idea. Everyone at some point gets caught in his or her blinders and nets. And I laud the efforts of whomever it was who went to the trouble of making the video. The acting was better than last time. I do believe in the efforts toward breaking cycles of negativism in interpersonal relationships. The cynic in me, however, doesn’t believe enough people understand it or will act on it, though, to make much difference in a large group, though I leave open a pore of hope. Most people even when they understand something only think they act on it. Like people who say they keep a clean house but really keep a clean house only in their imaginations. Lunatics. (Or maybe the above is actually an extension of my own driving psyche.) At the end of the video, the camera shot for the first time to the administrators. One of them said, "We do not believe in wizards. We do not believe in magic." How dull. Wasn't that the point? Believe and you will achieve. Lunatics. Meet my imaginary friend with courteous fractals in her eyes.
This morning I went to Service Excellence Academy II, SEA2 for the seasoned. This involved a video of dramatic enactments of various employee-patient scenarios—how to act and how not to act. I had 12 hours of this when I started this job in June. This morning it was only an hour. This one themed itself on wizardry. A wizard taught young hospital employees the ways of service excellence, of moving from good to great, of making patients say "wow". I got a glossary of terms: "good to great", positivism, service excellence, teamwork, compassion, patience, tolerance, and enthusiasm. At the end, we learned that the guy wasn’t a wizard after all; he was an escaped mental patient. However, he did make us believe that we can break the cycle of negativism—if we just believe we can. There was a quiz and a survey to complete at the end, which I have to give to the neuroscience manager to prove my new skills.
I understand the purpose of these sessions. It’s important to keep in check, get a refresher boost to make sure people are treating each other and patients properly. At the same time I feel somewhat cocky about the whole thing. I guess I was raised with a sure degree of common courtesy and born with a similar degree of intuitive sense about how to treat people. For example, I can tell when someone is lost and unless I’m in space—it sometimes happens—it occurs to me to ask that person if I can help him or her out. This is whether I’m at work, out in the world, in traffic. Something that wrinkles my eyes is that during this kind of orientation session "the teachers" act like the tips they are giving are new ideas to practice at work. Something that wrinkles my whole face is that usually most of the people participating in these sessions act like these are new things to practice and apply at work.
What are these people like out in the world? Self-centered, high-strung people, who have difficulty making connections and who can hold only their part of the conversation is my guess. There are a lot of people out there who at first seem to be friendly, talkative people, when actually they are good only at talking. They never hear what the other party in the conversation has to say; they do not respond to the other party but instead either repeat what they already said or say something unrelated entirely. These are the people who treat these "service excellence" tips like new information to practice and learn. Smile at people, inform people. Hey, imagine what you yourself might want. The Golden Rule. Do unto others… For example, don’t hand the patient with an injured hand some crackers, a cup of juice, and some painkillers all at once, particularly when there is no table to set any of it on and you’re going to walk away. This is what happened when I went to the emergency room for my dog bite. I was sure to note it in my survey rating the ER’s performance.
Do I feel like I learned anything this morning? I do pay attention at these things. Re-hashing the rules of common courtesy is never a bad idea. Everyone at some point gets caught in his or her blinders and nets. And I laud the efforts of whomever it was who went to the trouble of making the video. The acting was better than last time. I do believe in the efforts toward breaking cycles of negativism in interpersonal relationships. The cynic in me, however, doesn’t believe enough people understand it or will act on it, though, to make much difference in a large group, though I leave open a pore of hope. Most people even when they understand something only think they act on it. Like people who say they keep a clean house but really keep a clean house only in their imaginations. Lunatics. (Or maybe the above is actually an extension of my own driving psyche.) At the end of the video, the camera shot for the first time to the administrators. One of them said, "We do not believe in wizards. We do not believe in magic." How dull. Wasn't that the point? Believe and you will achieve. Lunatics. Meet my imaginary friend with courteous fractals in her eyes.
1 Comments:
i think that in the real world these people probably run out into traffic on rainy nights and get belligerent afterwards.
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