2021 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 233-242
Objective: Our aim was to improve the hospitality skills of healthcare professionals engaged in health checkups.
Design: Following an in-house hospitality skill training session in January 2018, self-assessment questionnaire surveys were implemented in March, June, September, and December in 30 staff members of our facility. They were asked to read out the low-rated items of their assessment at the start of daily work, and to act with the items in mind. There were six self-assessment categories: "greetings", "attitude", "wordings", "facial expression", "appropriate clothing" with 5, 12, 10, 6, and 15 items, respectively, and "others". The score for each item was 1 point for successful achievement and 0 points for unsuccessful achievement, and the results were compared on a percent basis.
Results: A categorical comparison of the initial (March) and final (December) self-assessments revealed significantly improved ratings for all categories at the last time point (85%±21% vs 99%±5% for "greetings", 75%±25% vs 93%±14% for "attitude", 73%±21% vs 91%±17% for "wordings", 71%±27% vs 90%±15% for "facial expression", 94%±8% vs 98%±4% for "appropriate clothing"). Male subjects showed significantly less improvement in "attitude" at the final assessment (83%±14% vs 95%±13%, p=0.03) and significantly lower rating for "facial expression" at the initial assessment (50%±20% vs 77%±24%, p=0.02). No significant difference was found between age strata (30s-40s vs 50s-60s) or occupational strata (nurses vs clerical workers).
Conclusions: Multiple surveys using the self-assessment table showed that self-assessments improved for all categories. Sex-related differences included lower value on the initial self-assessment for "facial expression" and less improvement in "attitude" in male subjects than in female subjects. These findings are useful in developing guidance for hospitality skill training.
