Hospital employee-patient relations: a program for enhancing patient well-being

Hospital service employees are often untrained for the human relations aspects of their jobs. Yet, workers who clean patient rooms, deliver meals, provide escort services, make room repairs, and the like can make a critical difference in the quality of patients' hospital experiences. The Patient Service Ethic Program helps such employees identify typical patient concerns during the course of hospitalization and guides them in ways to respond appropriately to those concerns. At a large teaching hospital where this program has been implemented, employees have responded positively to the caregiver role, and managers have used the program as a catalyst for constructive change.