Author Topic: Patients, clients, customers, service users...  (Read 6934 times)

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #25 on: 26 April, 2008, 10:13:05 pm »
 ;D

Pedaldog.

  • Heedlessly impulsive, reckless, rash.
  • The Madcap!
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #26 on: 26 April, 2008, 10:41:13 pm »
When I was a student Nurse in Colchester, 1992, We were given the death penalty if we ever referred to anything but "Clients and Carers or Health Care Professionals" and it still winds me up now.
You touch my Coffee and I'll slap you so hard, even Google won't be able to find you!

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #27 on: 26 April, 2008, 11:45:06 pm »
Patients, and in transport, passengers.

Clients and customers are just giving a company money.  Patients are being made well, and travellers are going somewhere.  The change in wording changes the emphasis in a way that makes my skin crawl.
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #28 on: 27 April, 2008, 08:23:25 am »
Midwives have "Mothers"
Paediatric nurses have children
Genera nurses have patients
Prostitutes have Clients


Bollards

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #29 on: 27 April, 2008, 12:17:29 pm »
A patient definitely.

Non of that newspeak!

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #30 on: 28 April, 2008, 07:16:58 pm »
Here's a term I've had an earful of today, in relation to patients: bariatric.

 :sick:

Give me good old "morbidly obese" any day.

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #31 on: 28 April, 2008, 07:27:31 pm »
There's a move in some local authorities to call the residents of that areas "customers" which I hate. Customers have a choice. You don't have a choice of which local authority provides your services you're stuck with the one you live in and the only way to change that is to move. And certainly many social work clients are receiving input against their will as compelled by law, so the notion of customer is ridiculous.

When I was working for the civil service - state benefits - I used to correct local authorities which called people "customers".  I much prefer "resident".

I doubt there is anywhere worse than the civil service for using the language of business - customers, end users etc.  OTOH some people in the office had much worse terms...

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #32 on: 29 April, 2008, 08:19:30 am »
Here's a term I've had an earful of today, in relation to patients: bariatric.

 :sick:

Give me good old "morbidly obese" any day.


I like that!   :)


I'm not fat - I'm 'bariatric'!   :thumbsup:  ;D
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #33 on: 29 April, 2008, 09:16:54 am »
The name's Attrick.  Barry Attrick.
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

diapsaon0

  • Advena ego sum in terra
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #34 on: 29 April, 2008, 09:57:54 am »
When I joined the Civil Service (DH)SS in 1974, we were told to refer to people as 'IP's' (Insured Persons). The PC brigade would have a field day with that now  ???

N
Advena ego sum in Terra

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #35 on: 29 April, 2008, 10:11:41 am »
Patients, and in transport, passengers.

Clients and customers are just giving a company money.  Patients are being made well, and travellers are going somewhere.  The change in wording changes the emphasis in a way that makes my skin crawl.

WHS
The old Legion hand told the recruit, "When things are bad, bleu, try not to make them worse, because it is very likely that they are bad enough already." -- Robert Ruark

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #36 on: 29 April, 2008, 10:13:45 am »
"The sub-healthy community"

 ;)

Non-patient-statusly challenged.

The old Legion hand told the recruit, "When things are bad, bleu, try not to make them worse, because it is very likely that they are bad enough already." -- Robert Ruark

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #37 on: 29 April, 2008, 10:21:56 am »
One the train the other day the person in charge of the staff on the train (head steward ?) announced herself over the intercom as "your team leader for today" which seems grammatically incorrect as I was not in any kind of team with her and also to imply that they rotated positions every day which I suspect is not the intention.

Doctor / Nurse and patient for heavens sake. Who wants to play health care professionals and customers ? It doesn't sound like fun at all.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #38 on: 29 April, 2008, 10:41:14 am »
A person could be a bariatric patient, in the same way they could be a cardiac patient or a renal patient.  You couldn't describe a person as bariatric alone.
Getting there...

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #39 on: 29 April, 2008, 12:23:08 pm »
I think it depends on the service.  Physical health services I think patient seems OK.  Mental health services (the area in which I am currently retraining) I find it more problematic.  Doctor/patient is a very power-laden relationship, and one of the big problems I have with the way that mental health services are structured at present is the way in which the relationship is YOU are the ill person and I am the healthy sane professional who is going to fix you. 

It takes agency away from people and that in itself can have a negative impact.  It also places the psychologist/psychiatrist in the position of expert - whilst they do of course have professional expertise, the patient/client/service user also has a great deal of expertise on their own experience, and there's a tendency for that to be ignored. 

I'm not sure that service user is that much of an improvement, though, and client definitely not.  (People who've had experience of the enforced parts of the mental health system tend to be very scathing about "service user", because they would resist the idea that they've been provided with any "service".)

HTFB

  • The Monkey and the Plywood Violin
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #40 on: 29 April, 2008, 01:03:53 pm »
My line of work has similar "issues" re what to call clients/service users/customers/etc. as they are mostly "involuntary" and under a degree of compulsion to attend, despite having "agreed" to be subject to a court order to attend.
May I suggest penitent?

On edit: er, I have no idea what sort of court orders these are. Penitent would be a good word for people subject to non-custodial punishment or enforced rehabilitation after a crime, anyway.

On further edit: now spelled right.
Not especially helpful or mature

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #41 on: 29 April, 2008, 01:09:58 pm »
A person could be a bariatric patient, in the same way they could be a cardiac patient or a renal patient.  You couldn't describe a person as bariatric alone.

Yes, but some of these terms are used in that way, e.g. geriatric.
"She'd be much better off in with the other geriatrics"  ::-)  :sick:

Not where I work, y'understand.


Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #42 on: 29 April, 2008, 01:14:40 pm »
It's just the ever pervasive corporate bullshit. Much like everything must have a strapline or mission statement.

Why does my borough council need to call itself "The Brighter Borough"?

And why the f*** does the college down the road have to waste money each and every year rebranding itself?

"
The revamped branding incorporates:

    * a distinctive new logo
    * fresh corporate colours
    * and an updated new vision, mission and values

The new branding is supported by a new strapline: ‘shaping your future'

Commenting on the rationale behind the re-brand, Sarah Horrell, Director of Marketing and Business Development said, "We have adapted to reflect the changes currently being experienced in the world of FE, to drive our own aspiration and affirm our position as a vocationally focused college serving the needs of the community and business."
"

I feel queasy.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

CathH

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #43 on: 29 April, 2008, 01:18:05 pm »
I think my discomfort from being called a "customer" if visiting a hospital is because it is just plain wrong in my eyes.  Customers pay for a product.  Customers don't tend to receive a service that's free at the point of use (mostly).  

When my other half went private using his company BUPA cover for a procedure he had no problem being referred to as a customer, and his expectations were a whole lot different too.

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #44 on: 29 April, 2008, 01:25:19 pm »
Our Training and Education Department, formerly known as just that, underwent a "rebranding" not long ago. It's called "Evolve" now. No-one knows what "Evolve" is. Any relevant queries are always about "training" or "education"; nobody calls it Evolve. It's listed in the work email and phonebook as Training and Education as otherwise no-one could find it.

Outside agency, fancy logo, and the laughable bit was that the rooms in the small department, formerly quite sensibly known as 1, 2, and 3, are now re-named "Oak", "Chestnut, "Willow".

Growth and all that y'see.  ::-)

The rooms have remained precisely the same. The training that goes on is either the same, or in the cases where it has been contracted out, far worse.


Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #45 on: 29 April, 2008, 01:41:15 pm »
...Doctor/patient is a very power-laden relationship...

Being a doctor puts a person in a position of power; there's no getting away from that. The doctor needs to be aware of it, and of the responsibility that goes with it.

alan

Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #46 on: 29 April, 2008, 02:00:04 pm »



Commenting on the rationale behind the re-brand, Sarah Horrell, Director of Marketing and Business Development said, "We have adapted to reflect the changes currently being experienced in the world of FE, to drive our own aspiration and affirm our position as a vocationally focused college serving the needs of the community and business."




That seems like toomanywords speak for

Trying to get it right ::-)

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: Patients, clients, customers, service users...
« Reply #47 on: 30 April, 2008, 11:52:25 am »
I would like to be addressed as "your grace", but as my elevation to Dukedom is somewhat unlikely I'll make do with "patient".

This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.