That was in June of 2008, when Tuttle, an environmental services technician at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, decided she no longer wanted to struggle communicating with deaf or Spanish-speaking patients. She asked her supervisor for staff training on how to tell patients when she needed to clean the room in multiple languages.
Within weeks, Atrium rolled out a program through one of its educators, Neva Kovach, to train the 78 environmental services employees in basic phrases in Spanish and American Sign Language. It’s now a routine part of orientation, and they are the only hospital staffers to receive such training, said Atrium spokeswoman Wendy Parks.
The knowledge is a point of pride among the workers, said Darlene Fletcher, director of environmental services.
“I am really proud of the employees because it is a big undertaking but they have taken it and embraced it,” she said.
Down in the hospital basement at the beginning of each shift, workers’ voices can be heard bouncing off the concrete floors as they practice how to say, “Hello, my name is ... I am the housekeeper on this unit. Would it be all right for me to clean your room now?”
Each shift practices the script at least twice a week, and five times a week when there are new employees.
Aimee Bassham, second-shift team leader, said her group, however, enjoys the routine so much they practice every day.
“It’s exciting for me to see people who have struggled and I can see when it clicks,” she said.
While the training is limited to that simple phrase — they revert to the universal “I don’t know” shrug if the patient asks questions beyond their skills — Tuttle said it makes a huge impact on the deaf and Hispanic patients she meets on her rounds.
“There is nothing neater hearing (the patient) speaking Spanish, and then you come in and start scripting and then they have the biggest smile come over their face,” she said. “I had a patient tell me they had never been to a hospital that had cared enough to learn.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.
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