for acupuncture students, alumni, faculty & friends — sponsored by AIMC Berkeley
Regarding new policies sent out 9/27, this is my response. What is yours?
Hi~
I have a few concerns.
It seems to me, in my experience as an herbal clinician and practitioner, that the elements which keep a patient coming back is the care and respect they get when they come to clinic and their impression of the environment. I.e., is it clean? Is it comfortable or tense? Is it chaotic or relaxing? The problem of patient volume preceeded intercession. To pretend that it began recently is a mistake. The intercession policy of absence make-up puts the responsibility on students who, as an observer, I generally see bending over backwards to provide quality care. The problems I have witnessed stem from things like patients not being properly communicated with, the wait due to supervisors not actually being available when they are on duty (especially administrators), and a general lack of attention and human connection. A basic level of "customer service", including eye contact when they're signing in, or some kind of acknowledgment, communication immediately if their appointment is running late, bells for uncomfortable patients to use to notify staff/clinicians, etc. Lack of marketing /publicity may also be at hand. What outside publicity has been done to promote the school and clinic. I no longer receive requests to volunteer at events. Are we not participating within the community to get our name out? Did we have a booth at the Solano Stroll, one of Berkeley's long-standing popular events? We talked to a lot of people and looked at a lot of tongues at that event when I participated. What about Chris Kresser's amazing talks about cholesterol and antidepressants? That talk brought people from as far as Sacramento when I attended and the room was full. It also supported a student in his professional endeavors. The school should be encouraging more of that, not inhibiting it. What did it even cost the school? To stop participating and investing in outside, and more importantly inside events, such as Chris's, while requesting the students hand out more business cards is insulting. It is the school's responsibility to bring in patients primarily. We pay you to provide our education. We participate, but we are not primarily responsible. We are here to focus on learning.
In all of your plans, responsibility is being laid on students' attire, regularly scheduled intersessions, and student treatments. Where is the responsibility of the admin in all of this? Why are our benefits- flexibility in schedule and free treatments- being cut? Your main source of word-of-mouth advertisement, not to mention income, your students are deeply unhappy. The good vibe that I once felt at AIMC, has been dissipating for some time now. If patients feel uneasy, overlooked, and sense tension, they will not come back. Perhaps, deeper solutions need be applied to a long-standing problem. To use metaphor, AIMC is like a wound right now. Healing efforts are only being applied to the surface, and though the skin looks to be mending, in fact, the wound is festering. An abscess is growing underneath. Deep healing for deep wounds... this is a treatment plan.
To end on a more optimistic note, I think AIMC has a great chance of keeping and increasing enrollment and increasing the patient count. It will take genuine care, open communication b/w admin, faculty and students, and community building. Please do not placate this issue with useless, punitive policies.
Thank you for your time,
Dawn
I have a few concerns.
It seems to me, in my experience as an herbal clinician and practitioner, that the elements which keep a patient coming back is the care and respect they get when they come to clinic and their impression of the environment. I.e., is it clean? Is it comfortable or tense? Is it chaotic or relaxing? The problem of patient volume preceeded intercession. To pretend that it began recently is a mistake. The intercession policy of absence make-up puts the responsibility on students who, as an observer, I generally see bending over backwards to provide quality care. The problems I have witnessed stem from things like patients not being properly communicated with, the wait due to supervisors not actually being available when they are on duty (especially administrators), and a general lack of attention and human connection. A basic level of "customer service", including eye contact when they're signing in, or some kind of acknowledgment, communication immediately if their appointment is running late, bells for uncomfortable patients to use to notify staff/clinicians, etc. Lack of marketing /publicity may also be at hand. What outside publicity has been done to promote the school and clinic. I no longer receive requests to volunteer at events. Are we not participating within the community to get our name out? Did we have a booth at the Solano Stroll, one of Berkeley's long-standing popular events? We talked to a lot of people and looked at a lot of tongues at that event when I participated. What about Chris Kresser's amazing talks about cholesterol and antidepressants? That talk brought people from as far as Sacramento when I attended and the room was full. It also supported a student in his professional endeavors. The school should be encouraging more of that, not inhibiting it. What did it even cost the school? To stop participating and investing in outside, and more importantly inside events, such as Chris's, while requesting the students hand out more business cards is insulting. It is the school's responsibility to bring in patients primarily. We pay you to provide our education. We participate, but we are not primarily responsible. We are here to focus on learning.
In all of your plans, responsibility is being laid on students' attire, regularly scheduled intersessions, and student treatments. Where is the responsibility of the admin in all of this? Why are our benefits- flexibility in schedule and free treatments- being cut? Your main source of word-of-mouth advertisement, not to mention income, your students are deeply unhappy. The good vibe that I once felt at AIMC, has been dissipating for some time now. If patients feel uneasy, overlooked, and sense tension, they will not come back. Perhaps, deeper solutions need be applied to a long-standing problem. To use metaphor, AIMC is like a wound right now. Healing efforts are only being applied to the surface, and though the skin looks to be mending, in fact, the wound is festering. An abscess is growing underneath. Deep healing for deep wounds... this is a treatment plan.
To end on a more optimistic note, I think AIMC has a great chance of keeping and increasing enrollment and increasing the patient count. It will take genuine care, open communication b/w admin, faculty and students, and community building. Please do not placate this issue with useless, punitive policies.
Thank you for your time,
Dawn
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ken Berry on -
Hi All,
Just a heads up that Johann Stahl has requested to be removed from the Acupuncture Channel, which means that his comments will no longer show in message threads.
Please know that we value free, open dialogue on the Channel.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at kberry@aimc.edu, or send me a message on the Channel.
Warm regards,
Ken Berry
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Permalink Reply by Falena Enders on -
To All,
It is reassuring to me to see there is dialogue among students and administration about the new policy and faculty changes. I truly hope this is the beginning of some constructive, open communication that can lead to the kind of changes that are mutually beneficial to all. It is imperative that students be part of this process for the health of the learning environment. Hopefully it is not to late to repair the damage.
Falena
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