Those of you who are either a physician or a patient probably know that there's a rating system that patients give for doctors to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their care. Recently, our hospital distributed a booklet on things we can do as physicians to improve our ratings. In the booklet, there were TWO PAGES dedicated to smiling.
It started out with an experiment. They tell you to look in a mirror and don't smile. Then they say to keep looking in the mirror while smiling. And, I kid you not, they gave instructions on how to smile. I thought that after thirty-something years of life, I would have mastered the art of smiling, but apparently not. (Maybe this should have been a med school course.) The instructions included showing a lot of teeth and gums. To be honest, the smile actually sounded like it could be frightening to some people.
Anyway, in spite of my skepticism, I gave monstro-smile a try the next day. And don't laugh, but I think it made a difference! I felt like when I was smiling, it encouraged patients to smile back, and I also felt like I was being nicer, in trying to be consistent with my smile. I felt like somehow this ridiculous smile helped build rapport in the room. A few patients even commented to me, "You're SO nice!" (Hey! I'm always nice!)
So that's my tip of the day: Smile.
Or not. Whatever.
I was waiting for the Heath Ledger Joker quote, but you resisted! I'm honestly impressed.
ReplyDeleteSmiling is great-and I always try to smile with my pts, as the situation warrants. However the hospital I work for wants to script all our interactions with pts, what to say and how to say it. We are not trained monkeys!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is my hope that your investment in the smile-training and delivery of smiles to patients the next day will yield the requisite improvement in the ratings.
ReplyDeleteUggh. I couldn't care less about my doctor's demeanor. My PCP is pretty cold, in fact. She's one of those "unless you are actively bleeding out you are wasting my time, and I will make absolutely certain you're aware of how unpleased I am about it" doctors. But her doctoring skills are just fine! I'm not going to a restaurant to get a damn burger, I'm trying to find out if my body is broken or not, and if so what can evidence-based medicine do for me? I don't need a friggin smile for that.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. I'll try it more often and see if it has the same effect on me.
ReplyDeleteFizzy, you are hilarious!
ReplyDeleteI read something click-bait page the daughter had up (or, maybe I fell into a rabbit hole of page after page) and there was slide that suggested your smile be 'the one you get when you walk outside and realize it is a BEAUTIFUL day'
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense to me - but I just think "it is beautiful, and I don't get to enjoy it. FROWN"
MBee
The greatest pitfall of a non-spontaneous smile is failure to engage the eyes. Practice by slightly squinting while you force that smile. In the OR my supervisor made us "smile" and say something nice to the surgeon during gowning and gloving. With a mask on you could make all kinds of nasty looking frowns, but as long as your eyes smiled, you were good to go.
ReplyDeleteWorth a shot. If nothing else it may change my own outlook. I tend to smile a lot but the current medical/insurance model leads me to adopt more of a "resting neutral face" at work. I'm going to try it. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI always smile with my patients. I also look people in the eye when I talk to them. Makes a huge difference.
ReplyDelete