There’s an excellent article in the New York Times about how patients interact with hospitals and medical professionals, In the Hospital, a Degrading Shift From Person to Patient. I was immediately struck by how many of the comments and situations readily apply to libraries too. While we are not looking after patrons’ health, we are often looking after health information needs and the stress and anxiety that many people feel when they are ill crosses over to their information seeking at this time -

…injury and illness make people more likely to perceive slights than when they are healthy. “Even if the nurse says, ‘Sure, I’ll go get that,’ and does so promptly, it can sound rude to the patient in this vulnerable condition,” … This vulnerability, many patients say, makes noises seem louder, time seem to slow down and anything that is less than indulgent compassion feel like coldness.

In libraries, the issue of nametags comes up often. Should we have them? What should they look like? Should they have our full name (or will that lead to stalkers)? But like hospitals, I tend to think that patrons want to know who we are. After all we know who they are -

In modern medicine, patients more commonly become exasperated because they do not know the names of the doctors or other medical staff. At many clinics and hospitals, staff members come and go without introductions, patients say. Name tags are in lettering too small to read easily; the names embroidered in script on doctors’ coats can get lost in folds.

The NMRT-L list recently had a discussion about whether or not to promote that librarians are degreed. What impact might this have on patrons when they come to see us in our offices or at the help desk?

Even the humble doctor’s office, if laden with medical tomes and framed medical degrees, can make a patient feel like an intruder in an exclusive space; unwelcome or even unworthy, say environmental psychologists.