Blog - Professional Courtesy, LLC

Dining Tutorial Photos

December 11, 2012 by procourtesy

If you teach dining etiquette these photos may be just what you need to enhance your presentations.

Professional full color photos for your dining tutorials can be yours for $60.00. They will be sent to you electronically.

There are 43 full color images done by a professional photographer for the book, “Dishing Up Smiles” that was published by the Alliance of the American Dental Association.

I contributed dining etiquette for 18 sections in the book. Each section for 18 sections in the book. Each section contained photos relative to the section topic. There are multiple shots of the settings so the best shot can be chosen for your presentations.

These are great to insert into Power Point Presentations, handouts, workbooks or any other dining tutorial. They show American and Continental styles of eating, formal place settings, eating soup, finger bowl use and more…

If you are interested, email me @ karen.hickman@p/ and I will invoice you via paypal.

My Peking Opera Experience: A Lesson on Cross-Cultural Etiquette

September 17, 2012 by procourtesy

My thanks to Jorie Scholnik for sharing her international travel experiences on my blog!

When I was in Beijing for two weeks over the summer with a Santa Fe College study abroad program, I was fortunate to be able to see all the main tourist attractions – The Great Wall, The Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, The Olympic Park, just to name a few. Everyone in the group had most evenings free, and I wanted to make the most of my time in China. I asked our tour guide, Fu, to purchase a ticket for me to see the traditional Chinese Peking Opera.

When I arrived at the Liyuan Theatre, I was escorted to a table with snacks and gaiwans (which consist of a saucer, a bowl and a lid for drinking tea). Once seated, I was able to watch an actor get dressed in his costume and then apply his make-up. One of the best parts of the experience was that I was sitting at a table of six, with two people from Japan, two people from Russia, a woman from Cuba and myself. It was extraordinary to watch the opera and converse with people from different backgrounds.

I attached some pictures below so you can get more of a feel for the experience. I also want to share some lessons I learned about cross-cultural etiquette from my tablemates at the opera.

Be open to trying new things and meeting new people. It comes across as very arrogant if you believe your way of life is the best and only way. Instead, ask open-ended questions to learn more and broaden your horizons. It will help strengthen your connection with other people, and may even lead to a new friend who lives abroad!
Remember that sense of humor doesn’t always translate well. We were all communicating at our table in English, but it was my tablemates’ second language. Jokes can be lost, and it is an easy way to create a misunderstanding. It is better to stick with simple and direct language.
Try your best. Even if you just know a few phrases in another language, people will appreciate your efforts. A good tip is to look up how people in your host country dress, greet each other and communicate before you travel.
Understand what is going on in the world. I realized that you don’t need to be an expert on every country, but you should have a general grasp of current events. You don’t want to cause people to become defensive and offended by bringing up subjects like politics and religion.

Side Note: For more information about using gaiwans, I want to pass along the link that Karen shared with me: http://www.wikihow.com/Brew-Gaiwan-Tea

Jorie Scholnik currently works as an assistant professor at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida, where she teaches career and etiquette classes. She has also been working under the direction of Jacqueline Whitmore at The Protocol School of Palm Beach for the past six years. She earned her master’s degree in counseling and her undergraduate degrees in public relations and psychology from the University of Florida. You can follow her on Twitter @JorieScholnik.

Parkview Regional Medical Center…a true gift.

August 21, 2012 by procourtesy

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of getting another tour of the new Parkview Regional Medical Center; a facility I consider to be a tremendous gift to the entire region.

As I approached the campus and saw the large “Parkview” sign I couldn’t help but be reminded of my long association with this organization. It’s the place where I had one of my very first jobs out of high school working as a nurse’s aide (now called nursing assistants.) It is the place I had my first job after graduating from nurse’s training as a staff nurse on Pediatrics. And it’s also the place where I met my husband and where I delivered our daughter.

My late husband also had a long association with Parkview; a physician on staff at Parkview for many, many years. He had been president of the medical staff, on the board of directors and was involved in many other aspects of the organization during his long medical career. It was certainly a major part of his professional life and our personal life together. It’s also the place where he received excellent care during his long illness before he died. I was touched during my tour, to bump into one the physical therapists who had taken such good care of him during one of his long hospitalizations. She had been a particular favorite of his and mine. I remember her coming to our home to visit us after he had been released to share a glass of wine and sit by our pool…a lovely memory for me.

On my tour I also realized how much things have changed over the years, for the better. The delightful young woman giving me the tour was pointing out, with enthusiasm, all of the new, state of the art features of this facility. For instance, the gift shop has the typical items you might give a patient during a hospital stay, but it also had other gifts that were related to and promoting a healthy life style. This is a big change from my day when cigarettes were sold in the gift shop and patients could smoke in their rooms and staff members could smoke in break rooms and in the cafeteria. Today, the entire campus is smoke free. Parkview is committed to wellness in life style and contributes a great deal to the community with education and services.

There is a large chapel on the second floor that is a beautiful place where services for all faiths are conducted; a change from the days when Parkview was known as a Methodist hospital. In addition, there is an interfaith prayer room that is available for people to go who feel the need for quiet and restoration. It contains books and resources representing all faiths that visitors can read and use. There is even a small wailing wall there. I found it to be a very peaceful place.

I could go on and on…Everywhere you turned there is evidence of the attention to detail that went into building this new medical center that will provide the best care in the best way to patients and their families. And I like to think it’s a pretty good place to work too.

This medical center is indeed, a gift to our entire region…a place where you can get the latest and best care medicine has to offer. I am often saddened when I hear people complain and distrust medical expansion. If medicine isn’t changing and expanding I think that it is a signal that a facility isn’t keeping up.

As I continue to do work for and with the leadership at Parkview, I feel glad and proud to be part of such an exciting time at Parkview and in our community.

(Here is a photo of me with some of the leadership at the Parkview Ortho Hospital at the end of some training in “professional courtesy.”)

My Top Courtesy Tips for Healthcare Workers

August 17, 2012 by procourtesy

The medical market is very competitive today. Make sure your office staff is practicing good manners along with good medicine. Here are my top 20 tips for a more polite staff.

1. Send thank you notes to new patients and referring physicians for choosing your practice. Handwritten thank you notes are never out of style and are a mark of distinction…they say you took the time to show your appreciation. Always add a personal line or two to a preprinted message.

2. In the business world, respond to your work E-mails within 24 hours or with an auto responder message.

3. Acknowledge that you received an E-mail even if it does not require much of a response.

4. Title your E-mails in the subject line.

5. Don’t send other people’s e-mail addresses when forwarding or sending info without their permission. Use the BCC line when sending e-mail to multiple recipients.

6. If you are crafting a response before the other person is done speaking, you are not listening fully to what they have to say.” Pause before responding.

7. Always excuse yourself before leaving a patient in the exam room, on the telephone, or in any conversation. We call this “taking your leave.”

8. Never return rudeness with rudeness.

9. Smiling comes through in the tone of your voice on the telephone. Over 70% of the message is conveyed in the sound of your voice.

10. Smile! It takes more facial muscles to frown than to smile.

11. Pause for a moment before answering the telephone. This will allow you to shift gears and focus on the caller.

12. Sitting down and making eye contact while interviewing patients leaves a more favorable impression than standing and you are perceived to spend more time with the patient.

13. Eye contact should be made 40-60% of the time in conversation. Less than that suggests you’re not paying attention… more than 60 % makes people feel uncomfortable.

14. Acknowledge the special events in your patient’s lives with a note. Send sympathy notes when patients or their family members die.

15. What Not to Wear in the workplace…crocs, flip-flops, cleavage; on the top or the bottom and no bare midriff.

16. Avoid “tramptastic” skirt lengths. More than 1 -2 “above the knee is too short for work.

17.“Imagine yourself in the patient’s position… how would you feel?”

18.“Create a friendly atmosphere, but avoid a party atmosphere in your office.”

19.“Never let a patient hear you complain.”

20.“Avoid using superlatives such as, “the doctor never” does something. Better to say, “doctor prefers ,“ this leaves room for the exception to a rule.”

Hey look at me, I’m so important!

June 17, 2012 by procourtesy

A number of years ago, my late husband (who was a physician) and I were guests at a special dinner for physicians and spouses. In those settings there was always someone on call and it was not unusual to have pagers and phones going off and interrupting the conversation, but most physicians would excuse themselves from the table, take the call, and come back to the festivities. However, one physician, who had just received a new mobile phone from his spouse, decided to stay at the table and check his messages and talk with his patients. Needless to say, it was incredibly rude, disruptive to the table and an invasion of the patient’s privacy. I remember feeling so sorry for the person on the other end of the line whose medical details were being shared with a table full of people who should not have been hearing any of the conversation. I also remember thinking that the physician was a jerk and seemingly wanting everyone to know how important he was.

Today, I am often reminded of that time when I am out in public and I see and hear people carry on personal conversations on their cell phones that shouldn’t be shared with the world. The message is, “look at me I am so important that I need to be in touch with the world constantly.” If your work is so important, then maybe you should stay home to take care of business. Certainly, that would have been a better choice for the physician. After all, if he was saving lives, doing it in the middle of a dinner party was inappropriate. He too, should have stayed home.

Dining Tutorial Photos

My Peking Opera Experience: A Lesson on Cross-Cultural Etiquette

Parkview Regional Medical Center…a true gift.

My Top Courtesy Tips for Healthcare Workers

Hey look at me, I’m so important!

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