While working at UMHS, Quentin Logan has learned that "cultural competency in the workplace begins when diversity awareness is brought to the consciousness of those who provide services to patients and their families." To help provide education on diversity awareness to various staff groups (management, administration, surgery schedulers, and outpatient clerks), Quentin developed and presented a one-hour interactive seminar "Diversity in the Workplace".
This seminar began with the intention of providing diversity training to Otolaryngology's outpatient clerks but blossomed to include a much larger audience. "Diversity in the Workplace" has been presented to Pediatric Otolaryngology, Adult Otolaryngology, and the Livonia Center for Facial Cosmetic Surgery and Vocal Health. This seminar centers on interactions within diverse groups.
During this interactive seminar, attendees completed a "preference quiz" to reveal their own preferences regarding habits, values, and ethics related to their work environment. Each person then created his/her own "preference profile" and could volunteer to share results with the group.
The Otolaryngology group had extremely varied responses. Staff were surprised by the clear similarities and differences existing in the way they viewed their work environment compared to others, especially to staff who worked side by side with them - their "neighbors".
These findings quickly generated a detailed, open discussion about respecting diversity within the group. This group recognized how they displayed many diverse characteristics including religious practices, ethnicity, and language (both verbal and non-verbal). The Otolaryngology staff also had a great discussion about office issues, stereotyping, and what it means to bridge the cultural gap.
The goal for this initial diversity training was to expand the focus to include other groups in the clinic and possibly other departments. Accomplishing this goal would increase diversity awareness, thus enhancing the standard of customer service and patient care.
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