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Our patients, our customers: what do they expect from us?
Accident and Emergency Nursing (2003) 11, 182–183 0965-2302/03/$ - see front matter ª 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0965-2302(03)00006-7
Personal View
Our patients, our customers: what do they expect from us? Emmanuel D’Souza
The simple dictionary meaning of the word ‘customer’ is a person who buys goods or services from a shop or a business and truly we can call a patient our customer because he gets services from us. All services and goods need to be of a standard and the patient expects us to give him the best service in town. In fact the customer is everything to a business or a shop because without him there would not be any shops or any big businesses. The customer is the driving force for any concern and so is the patient for any hospital.
What do they expect from us?
Emmanuel D’Souza A&E Department Khoula Hospital, P.O. Box 90 A.C. 116, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman E-mail: souza_e@ hotmail.com
Manuscript received: 16 January 2003; accepted: 25 January 2003
182
Imagine yourself at a shopping center and the sales man does not address you well. He is rather rude to you; what will be your reaction? You would think of never, ever going back to the same shop again or you may complain to the higher authority. In the same way, when a patient enters the hospital, if he is met with a rude welcome by the triage nurse or doctor the patient will never be satisfied, even if the care is of good standard. He would rather find faults in everything that is done to him. As we expect a good salutation from the salesman, the patients expect a good smile and a good talk that will soothe away his pains and decrease his anxiety and help us to serve him better. We can find special offers everywhere in the shopping malls like ‘‘buy one get one free’’ but we will never find such a scheme at the hospital. It does not mean that we should start schemes like ‘‘get admitted here and get another disease free’’ it rather means that we
Accident and Emergency Nursing (2 0 0 3 ) 11, 182–183
should treat people in a more humane way, not like commodities. We should empathize with the person rather than just showing our sympathy. We should put ourselves in the patient’s place and think what would be our state if we came to the hospital with severe pain and did not get proper attention. On the other hand if the patient is given enough attention we will know the outcome when the patient leaves the hospital. He will thank the nurses or the doctors several times and also tell his friends and neighbours about his experience of the particular hospital he visited. This, in turn, would improve the image of the hospital to the general public. Modern technology has indeed helped us to serve our patients better but it has also reduced the relationship between the nurse and patient or the patient and doctor. As Albert Einstein once said: ‘‘It has become appallingly obvious that modern technology has exceeded our humanity’’. This means we have become more techno savvy than human. We treat human beings according to the result on the monitor rather than the feelings or symptoms of the patients. Monitors do not have feelings and emotions but humans do have feelings. Too much dependence on electronic gadgets will take us to a stage where, one day, we will have cardiologists without a heart, a neurosurgeon without a brain and nurses without kind hands, so we need to be more human in treating patients. All these gadgets are only
ª 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Our patients, our customers: what do they expect from us?
to help us serve the patients better, we should not be dependent on them. When a patient says he has a particular problem we should not ignore it because the electronic gadget does not show it. All that we need to do is listen to the patient and understand his problem and find the best solution for him. Another important thing that patients expect is that professionalism is the performance of our duties in the most professional manner. Rather than taking the patient’s care as a burden, we should take it as a service and try to provide the best care possible. Often we start grumbling when we get more patients in our department. If we just analyze, we can see that the hospital is the last place a person would like to visit. Often he is brought by others or the problem is so severe that the person cannot remain at home. Mother Teresa once said:
ª 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
‘‘Nurses and doctors are the instruments of God in healing the sick’’ We are only the facilitators who help to bring God’s plan into action, so how can we ignore or neglect the human beings he has created? Finally, if we ponder on the following statement, that was said by the great advocate of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi, we would really find the purpose of our very existence. ‘‘A Customer is our most important visitor. He is not dependent on us We are dependent on him He is not an interruption of our work; he is the purpose of it He is not an outsider to our business He is a part of it We are not doing a favor by serving him He is doing a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so’’
Accident and Emergency Nursing (2 0 0 3 ) 11, 182–183 183
Personal View
Our patients, our customers: what do they expect from us? Emmanuel D’Souza
The simple dictionary meaning of the word ‘customer’ is a person who buys goods or services from a shop or a business and truly we can call a patient our customer because he gets services from us. All services and goods need to be of a standard and the patient expects us to give him the best service in town. In fact the customer is everything to a business or a shop because without him there would not be any shops or any big businesses. The customer is the driving force for any concern and so is the patient for any hospital.
What do they expect from us?
Emmanuel D’Souza A&E Department Khoula Hospital, P.O. Box 90 A.C. 116, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman E-mail: souza_e@ hotmail.com
Manuscript received: 16 January 2003; accepted: 25 January 2003
182
Imagine yourself at a shopping center and the sales man does not address you well. He is rather rude to you; what will be your reaction? You would think of never, ever going back to the same shop again or you may complain to the higher authority. In the same way, when a patient enters the hospital, if he is met with a rude welcome by the triage nurse or doctor the patient will never be satisfied, even if the care is of good standard. He would rather find faults in everything that is done to him. As we expect a good salutation from the salesman, the patients expect a good smile and a good talk that will soothe away his pains and decrease his anxiety and help us to serve him better. We can find special offers everywhere in the shopping malls like ‘‘buy one get one free’’ but we will never find such a scheme at the hospital. It does not mean that we should start schemes like ‘‘get admitted here and get another disease free’’ it rather means that we
Accident and Emergency Nursing (2 0 0 3 ) 11, 182–183
should treat people in a more humane way, not like commodities. We should empathize with the person rather than just showing our sympathy. We should put ourselves in the patient’s place and think what would be our state if we came to the hospital with severe pain and did not get proper attention. On the other hand if the patient is given enough attention we will know the outcome when the patient leaves the hospital. He will thank the nurses or the doctors several times and also tell his friends and neighbours about his experience of the particular hospital he visited. This, in turn, would improve the image of the hospital to the general public. Modern technology has indeed helped us to serve our patients better but it has also reduced the relationship between the nurse and patient or the patient and doctor. As Albert Einstein once said: ‘‘It has become appallingly obvious that modern technology has exceeded our humanity’’. This means we have become more techno savvy than human. We treat human beings according to the result on the monitor rather than the feelings or symptoms of the patients. Monitors do not have feelings and emotions but humans do have feelings. Too much dependence on electronic gadgets will take us to a stage where, one day, we will have cardiologists without a heart, a neurosurgeon without a brain and nurses without kind hands, so we need to be more human in treating patients. All these gadgets are only
ª 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Our patients, our customers: what do they expect from us?
to help us serve the patients better, we should not be dependent on them. When a patient says he has a particular problem we should not ignore it because the electronic gadget does not show it. All that we need to do is listen to the patient and understand his problem and find the best solution for him. Another important thing that patients expect is that professionalism is the performance of our duties in the most professional manner. Rather than taking the patient’s care as a burden, we should take it as a service and try to provide the best care possible. Often we start grumbling when we get more patients in our department. If we just analyze, we can see that the hospital is the last place a person would like to visit. Often he is brought by others or the problem is so severe that the person cannot remain at home. Mother Teresa once said:
ª 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
‘‘Nurses and doctors are the instruments of God in healing the sick’’ We are only the facilitators who help to bring God’s plan into action, so how can we ignore or neglect the human beings he has created? Finally, if we ponder on the following statement, that was said by the great advocate of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi, we would really find the purpose of our very existence. ‘‘A Customer is our most important visitor. He is not dependent on us We are dependent on him He is not an interruption of our work; he is the purpose of it He is not an outsider to our business He is a part of it We are not doing a favor by serving him He is doing a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so’’
Accident and Emergency Nursing (2 0 0 3 ) 11, 182–183 183