It is also likely that once trained, many of these individuals lose focus on the key importance of their role -- possibly being distracted by homework, school, families, or other life issues. This type of individual did not take the job of Patient Escort because of a true overriding need to help others, true empathy, but because of the convenience of the position. Job Specifications -- Hiring Procedures -- First, the position description should be rewritten. It should emphasize personality and characteristics that focus on empathy, kindness and be very clear about what is expected. This job does not require a college student, or even a High-School graduate (except perhaps for Hospital procedures). It requires someone who has care capacity and is overwhelmingly cheerful, kind, and truly likes people. Often, this is not a characteristic of the young, or the upwardly mobile. The personnel director might check with some of the local social service agencies to see if there are individuals who are on assistance now, but have the personality for this job, while perhaps not having skills for a more technical job. In all cases hiring procedures need to be reevaluated for this specific job.

Hiring Procedures -- at the very least, a Meyers-Briggs test could easily be administered, which would at least guide HR in the basic tenets of emotion and empathy (myersbriggsreports.com). There are also several tests for empathy available online (noanxiety.com), and several resources that can help a hiring manager...

In fact, it is the Supervisor of Patient Escorts that should participate in this process. Certainly, more emphasis in the interviewing process should be on tangible examples of actual service and empathy for people; those characteristics being the prime hiring delineator.
Training and Evaluation -- it is not enough to send these employees through a basic orientation. They should receive training, and job shadowing for 1-2 shifts. Then, during the first 30-90 day period, regular evaluations based on customer feedback (a short survey could be made by phoning the patient a few days after discharge). A more regular evaluation procedure, perhaps using a 360-degree approach to get many levels of feedback, would be appropriate.

Conclusions -- the situation with the hospital seems relatively easy to solve and would not take too much extra time. Free online tests could help guide the procedure while the new questions were being developed; more questioning and examples of service incorporated; and phone calls to senior centers and social service agencies would likely lead to a number of kind individuals who needed to get away from home, or who had limited skills, but liked people and could easily do this job. Despite its seemingly low-nature on the hierarchy of the hospital's organizational chart, this position probably interacts with clients more than any other non-medical staff member, and should therefore be prioritized for reevaluation.