Everything I needed to know to be a pediatric emergency room doctor, I learned as a waitress

Abstract

When I began my career as a pediatric emergency medicine physician, I believed I was prepared to take on any medical emergency. However, I was not prepared to provide a good patient family experience. Throughout my years of training, I was not taught productive ways of interacting with patients and was unaware of how impactful the patient family experience would be. Negative patient family experience scores affected my interactions with patients, my shared decision making and my ability to provide quality care. After working to improve my scores, I focused on skills I obtained in a non-medical setting, as a waitress, and applied them to my patient interactions. These 10 tips, which I have adapted from the hospitality industry, will help with not only improving your patient-family experience scores, but improving your entire interaction with patients in the emergency room or any clinical environment in which you work.