This is largely a subjective post.
I have no real way of knowing, today, how widespread my perception is. It seems to me, one of the impediments to the advancement to respiratory care as a profession, is that the quality of our therapists varies widely. And this affects how physicians relate to and/or trust their therapists.
Any comments on this are quite welcome. It appears to me that there are a lot of different kind of therapists, and for the docs, it's sort of a crap shoot who they are going to get. Are they going to get someone who is just getting the treatments done without questioning or evaluating, simply trying to get through their day? Are they getting someone with "junior doctor syndrome", who is going to relentlessly question and challenge every decision they make. Will they hopefully find someone with a little balance, who will think about what is going on, present questions and recommendations, but knows when to follow procedures and protocols, as well as doctor's orders?
And if there is a real consistency problem, then we need to find a way to produce more consistent therapists. It's not enough for us to have a set of knowledge, we have to instill certain social skills. Therapists must truly understand their role in health care, and step up to that role.
Just musing.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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5 comments:
You make a great point but I am not sure how - or if - consistency can be obtained across the board. People have different ways of approaching situations depending on their personality, confidence and previous experience, and RTs are no different. One could argue that the physicians are not consistent enough either in their social skills and the way they interact with other health care professionals. Unfortunately how to relate to one another in a productive and respectful manner is not a subject taught in school...it has to be learned while attending the school of life.
Thanks for commenting. And for restoring my perspective.
I think I actually miss some of the citizenship type lessons that used to be taught in school. When I was a kid, we were taught things like who you introduce to whom, how to write a thank you letter, and other basics of etiquette. I don't think they go over that sort of thing any more.
What would happen if we included business etiquette in our course work--like along with the humanities and science and writing that are considered basics? What about a course on negotiations in business, and proper business communications? I'm endlessly amazed at how poorly we 1) transmit actual data from person to person, and 2) how we "come off"--people who don't realize how aggressive they sound, or weak, or whatever.
When I was doing help desk, at several locations we relied on scripts. We had to learn the script, but once we were comfortable with it, we could certainly stray from it verbatim, but had to stay within the basic content. What if we taught scripts to students so that they had a formula for communicating in an effective and non-offensive way?
Uh, oh, this is turning into a whole new post!
Thanks for contributing to my blog.
I think it's normal and good to have an array of personalities. And I think a good doctor, a good institution, will find a way to use this to its benefit.
Since working in the medical field is such a people orientated arena, we should all be required to take a class on people skills.
Freadom--
I think you said succinctly what I'm trying to get at.
Personalities are one thing, and all of us have strengths and weaknesses. Often they are two sides of the same coin.
Nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with raising the bar on what constitutes good and bad behavior.
I'm sure a lot depends on your work environment, but I am constantly amazed at the interactions, written and in person, that I witness. Definitely some more training would not HURT anything.
One thing that I've always thought we should do more of in hospitals is have respiratory therapist, nurses, administrators and doctors together in making decisions to improve patient care and save the hospital money. We currently do that in Michigan with the Keystone project, and it is working wonders here. A post to come about this soon on my blog.
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