By Pamela Miller, OD, FAAO, JD, FNAP
April 27, 2016
SYNOPSIS
We live in a multicultural society. To grow your patient base, train your staff to use inclusive language that welcomes all cultures.
ACTION POINTS
DISCUSS HOLIDAY GREETINGS. Establish protocols on how to greet, and how to respond, to patients.
BE RESPECTFUL OF PERSONAL BELIEFS. Choose activities for staff events that are not particular to any religious belief, and keep religious icons in your personal office, rather than in public areas.
WELCOME STAFF FEEDBACK. Rather than dictate, ask staff how they feel about office-patient communications, and any activities they are asked to participate in.
We live in a multicultural, multifaceted society, in which ethnic, religious and gender identities all need to be respected. The optometric office is a crossroads of diverse cultures–and you need to equip your staff to be culturally competent in order to make all parties feel welcome and to best provide eyecare services to them.
The language you and your staff use when speaking to each other and patients can either create a welcoming office, in which people of all backgrounds and religious beliefs are welcome, or one in which some are left feeling alienated. From holiday greetings to the activities offered at staff retreats, it’s important to be conscious of the diversity in your office and community, and to communicate that all are welcome in your office.
Discuss Holiday Greetings
“Merry Christmas” is a widely accepted greeting for those who celebrate Christmas, but do you have patients, and staff, who don’t? Each office needs to decide, first, what the holiday greeting will be, or if there should be one at all. In our office, we have chosen not to recognize any particular holiday, including Christmas, in the greeting and welcome we offer to patients. Most practices have a multitude of ethnicities and religions, both on staff and within the patient base. So, if you’re wishing all who come into your office in December a “Merry Christmas,” you’re telling your Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or non-observant, patients that your office is not for them. It’s not an overt message, but a subtle one that some patients will notice.
Once you decide what your holiday greeting, or lack thereof, will be, you need to decide what your staff will say in response to a “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Chanukah,” or any other holiday-related greeting. Just as you don’t want your patients to feel uncomfortable, or marginalized, neither do you want your staff to experience those feelings. In my office, we’ve decided that the best response to any holiday-related greeting is simply to say “Thank you” or “I hope you have a happy holiday,” or simply “You,too.”
Be Respectful of Staff & Patient Personal Beliefs
When selecting activities for staff events, don’t choose an activity that anyone on staff would feel uncomfortable participating in. For example, if you have an event in which staff will be making arts and crafts, you wouldn’t want an activity that would guide employees in making personalized crosses (or Stars of David or any other religious symbol). You also wouldn’t want a religious leader, whatever the denomination, to serve as a guest speaker or presenter. You wouldn’t want any activity, speaker or information presented to be related to any religion, regardless even of when the whole staff happens to be of the same religion.
The danger is you often don’t know what an employee’s true beliefs are, even if they’ve identified themselves as belonging to a particular religion, or have led everyone to believe they feel the same as all the other employees. When religion is injected into the workplace, some employees may feel pressured to align themselves with whatever their boss and co-workers’ believe. For that reason, it is best to steer clear of religious themes and symbols in any activity or communication affecting your employees.
When it comes to your own beliefs as practice owner, you have the legal right to display a cross, Star of David, Buddha statue, or any other religious icon, anywhere in your office, but it’s best to display it only in your private office. Like the potentially alienating holiday greeting, you don’t want patients with differing beliefs to feel unwelcome, and you don’t want your staff to feel pressured to pretend to adhere to your beliefs while at work.
Interact With Patients’ Religious Beliefs Respectfully in Exam Room
From time to time a patient may feel the need to discuss religion with their doctor, whether it’s letting the doctor know how happy they are that they just found God, or to let the doctor know where they stand religiously (even if the doctor never asked). When patients do this, the approach I take is to say simply “thank you for sharing.” They also may want to let you know that they’re praying for you, to which I would just respond by saying “thank you.” I don’t choose to discuss my religious beliefs with patients, but also don’t want to say anything that would lead them to believe that I don’t respect their beliefs.
With optometrists practicing a greater scope of medical eyecare, serving patients who are sometimes losing their vision, or whose eyes have been affected by serious systemic illnesses, there also may be patients who ask you to pray with them. Use your own discretion if you want to pray with the patient, but more important than participating in the act of praying is showing a patient who makes that kind of request empathy, and letting the patient know that you are sensitive to their feelings and want to help in any way you can.
Welcome Feedback About Office Culture from Staff
Your employees usually won’t tell you when they’re uncomfortable unless you allow them the latitude to do that. The best way is to discuss how they feel about your approaches to doctor-patient relations, and the expression of personal belief in the office. Before letting them know your own view, it’s helpful to ask them first how they feel about it. If you present your own view first, the employee may feel pressured to say they agree with you.
For example, if you have an idea for a staff activity after work, rather than simply letting your employees know what the activity is during a staff meeting, you could ask for ideas, and then let them know the idea you have. You might be surprised by the activities you think of as harmless that an employee may feel uncomfortable participating in, such as a staff happy hour. An employee might suggest that you go to a restaurant or coffee shop instead.
The best rule of thumb: If you’re not sure about the policy you should set in your office, or about a staff activity, ask your employees for their input. You might say: “I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m not really sure, so I’d like your feedback, what do you think? What do you think would be good for our patients?”
Pamela Miller, OD, FAAO, JD, FNAP, has a solo optometric practice in Highland, Calif. She has a law degree, holds a therapeutic license, is California State Board-certified and glaucoma-certified to prescribe eye medications, and offers comprehensive vision care, contact lenses, visual therapy and low vision services. To contact her: drpam@omnivision.com.
