This year as well as sign ups for skills we have to perform there is a long list of different procedures we need to observe, so that we can better explain them to patients in the future. This is why I ended up trawling the hospital sweet talking pretty much every healthcare professional I came across.
Apparently us medical students have a reputation for being demanding, bolshy and rude. I'm aiming to turn that around. It is for this reason that I have perfected the smile and smooze.
The smile and smooze works best if you are genuinely a nice person. It is quite obvious if you're just putting it on.
The technique is simple. When asking if a different healthcare professional will show you something you have to be nice to them. Remember that explaining things to you will probably slow down their already busy day. I always start with introducing myself and giving a big smile. I then ask nicely about what I would like to do or see. It's important at this point to emphasize that they will be doing you a favour so timings are completely flexable. If they frown it's important to keep smiling. This disarms mean people so even they say yes. The smoozing then continues with a very big thank you once they've agreed to what you want.
To perfect the smooze when you return to observe the other healthcare professional at work, bring something for them. A sweetie pilfered from somewhere is enough. Then remember to say thank you at the end. A couple of comments on how interesting/difficult/skillful their job is also doesn't go amiss. Everyone likes to hear when they're doing a good job.
The smile and smooze has yet to fail me. Fingers crossed!
Lily xXx
3 comments:
I've been working on perfecting that too! I always try to thank the nurses when I leave theatre etc. I feel that, especially when I just turn up unexpectedly, I owe them at least that!
Technique read, digested, learnt and filed for 2 years time :) happy its-nearly-the-weekend day!
Wow... I'm pleased I'm not the only person who counts Wednesday as "nearly-the-weekend"
Lets hope that all medical students adopt the friendly, nice, respectful, smiley approach to hospitals and we'll lose our bad reputation!
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