AIDET

There are only thousands upon thousands of abbreviations and acronyms in healthcare and information systems. Are you familiar with healthcare at all? Heard of Studer or HCAHP? I'm not quite sure who created this little acronym, I'm guessing someone will take the time to tell me because let's face it, that's what we do on the world wide web. Interject and add our nickel, when we wouldn't spend two cents in real life.

Most of the time we ruin our introductions by starting the meeting or conversation with, "Let's do our AIDETs," or "Here is my AIDET." Don't tell me before you start this is a rehearsed script. Prefacing the intro takes away from the intended effect - to improve communication, put the customer (pick your poison on who the customer is) at ease, and provide assurance.

So, if you didn't know:

A - Acknowledge: Smile and make eye contact, it's really not that painful.
I - Introduce: My name is, maybe a little more.
D - Duration: How long is this (meeting, diagnostic procedure, etc.) going to take.
E - Explain: Avoid further use of acronyms... XR of KUB STAT.
T - Thank: An appreciative statement or a simple thank you for your time.

Hello interweb! My name is Tara Jenkins. I'm a registered nurse, work full time as an informatics analyst and do a little PRN home health care. I'm not quite sure how long this blog is going to last but I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes, my posts won't be too long because that is just the type of writer I am. I have some thoughts about healthcare, information systems and collaboration in the continuum of care that I hope to share. Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post.