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When I was a young boy, my mother made sure I watched the
kind of words I used. I may have gotten away with some that
weren’t allowed (okay maybe more than a few) but, if I
slipped, the cure back in those days was getting your mouth
washed out with a bar of soap.
Today, some people would call that child abuse but that’s
another subject all together. Then, it was an effective
reminder to “watch your language.” While today we
probably won’t be threatened with that punishment, it is
still necessary to “watch our language” as eye care
professionals. This refers to several different things.
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Easily the first consideration is what I would call ‘foul’
language. What someone thinks is offensive, another thinks
is just colorful or even ordinary. Either way, the best
policy is never to use questionable language. This was
brought home to me when I moved from one part of the country
to another and used a word that was harmless at home but was
considered crude by some and even swearing by others. The
same thing happened in reverse, as well. Our family had to
work on hearing some words used in normal conversation that
we just never were allowed to utter.
As a professional, watching your language will make sure
you don’t needlessly offend one of your patients. At our
practice, swearing of any kind is never tolerated from the
staff and, if a patient begins to use abusive language, they
are warned and subject to being asked to leave. The door
swings both ways. We cannot allow a patient to abuse our
staff or our patients.
Another facet of watching your language regards telling
off-color stories or jokes. Patients do this and laugh it
off. However, others nearby will likely be offended. Train
your staff not to tell those jokes and not to laugh at them.
This is not being politically correct; it’s being
respectful of others. Often, people get the message when we
don’t laugh at their joke.
Stories that denigrate a certain race are not funny and
may well cause a patient who hears them to leave your
practice, not because your staff member told it (surely
not!) but because it was silently tolerated or even laughed
at. We know that, when a person is happy with our practice,
they will likely tell someone else. If they are unhappy,
they will likely tell ten others! Don’t give them a reason
to leave or talk negatively about your practice and staff.
A different twist to the caveat to ‘watch your language’
involves language skills. Many offices have staff that is of
a language group different from the majority of their
patients. That’s becoming more the norm as language groups
immigrate to the U.S. and move to areas where their language
is rarely spoken. There’s nothing wrong with that.
However, if your staff member’s primary language is
different, the very least they can do is to learn the
language of the majority of your patients.
Establish the language of your practice and make sure
your staff members can speak that language well. Speaking
well is not street slang. If their home language is Spanish
and most of your patients speak English, your staff member
needs to learn good English skills. This is not
discrimination; it’s presenting a more professional image
and a more confident staff member.
Difficulties arise where a patient gets frustrated trying
to communicate with a staff member who cannot speak well,
only to become an unhappy patient who needs to be dealt with
by a supervisor to calm them down and help them with their
needs. This is an unnecessary waste of staff resources and
frustration for your patients because effective
communication was made unnecessarily difficult. Something as
easy as having language training resources, like Rosetta
Stone, available for your staff will result in a positive
impression for your patients as they realize that your staff
respects them and values their continued patronage.
As we make the effort to see the perspective of our
patients we will notice things that are irritants to them
but go mostly unnoticed by us. Try, for example, calling a
customer help line where you are connected to someone who is
in another country, speaking some form of English that you
can’t understand. It’s not just an accent (we all have
those); it’s often just the way they put words together
that makes it difficult to know what they mean. The level of
frustration you have in those encounters can be multiplied
by the number of patients in your practice who deal with
your staff members who cannot communicate well.
Reward your staff for becoming bilingual or even
trilingual. After all, if they do that, they are truly more
valuable to you. I am very grateful for a volunteer who took
the time to help me learn American Sign Language many years
ago. While I don’t use it every day, when we have a deaf
patient in the practice, they truly appreciate it when they
have a staff member come over to sign with them so they don’t
have to write everything down on paper.
I once surprised a patient by noticing that their name
was obviously Germanic so I took a chance and, when I talked
with him, I spoke German. He sat there for a few seconds and
finally said, “I haven’t used my German for many years.”
He said it with a smile on his face as his native language
being used in our optical practice brought back many happy
memories. Was it necessary? No, it wasn’t but it provided
a happy moment for him and a laugh for both of us. All in
all, it made a delightful experience in an unexpected place.
If your staff members tell you they can’t learn another
language, point them in the direction of the Rosetta Stone
videos or YouTube clips and have them try. You might also
remind them that they learned another language when they
learned your practice management software. Both of you will
probably be happily surprised and it will go a long way to
helping your staff “watch their language.” Then, watch
the positive reaction of your patients as they realize that
you value them enough for your staff members to be trying to
speak their language.
