“Pick a card, any card,” says Kathryn Parker, R.D., L.D./N, UF Diabetes Institute Diabetes Education Program manager.

Kathryn Parker, R.D., L.D./N, UF Diabetes Institute Diabetes Education Program manager

The attendee smiles and grabs a card from the middle of the deck. Another Hospitality and Service training session is off and running.

Parker is a volunteer Hospitality and Service class facilitator. Her keys to success, she said, are two decks of playing cards.

“I keep one deck and distribute the other between everyone in the class,” Parker said. “I’ll ask someone to pull a card from my deck, and the person with the corresponding card has to answer a question about the topic we’re on.”

The result is a classroom full of engaged and interested faculty and staff. Another volunteer facilitator is Joseph Tyndall, M.D., M.P.H., FACEP, UF College of Medicine emergency medicine chairman and UF Health Shands chief of emergency services. He introduced the playing cards idea to Parker.

“It breaks the ice and gets people talking,” Parker said. “Once the person with the card answers, others can add their own comments.”

The UF Health Hospitality and Service sessions have been underway for several months, and the turnout has been impressive. By January, more than 4,000 UF Health Shands, UF Health Physicians and UF College of Medicine staff had completed the training.

Comfortable with the class format and material, facilitators like Parker and Tyndall are trying out new ways to make information click with participants.

“What we’re really teaching is how to be courteous to one another, which we all know how to do, but sometimes day-to-day life gets in the way,” Parker said. “This class reminds us to walk in someone else’s shoes, to put on another pair of boots.”

To sign up, visit mytraining.UFHealth.org and choose a three-hour Hospitality and Service session from a list of dates and times. And be ready — you never know when your card might be pulled!