It is not unusual if they spend only one day in a department, as the students, who are on summer holidays, tend to stay a maximum of two weeks, if not less. I do not think this was sufficient time for them to criticize and judge the polite levels of the staff . The writer pointed out the ECG Dept whom I feel I must defend. In my final year of medical school, I did a 3-week attachment in cardiology and spent a fair amount of time with the technicians. I thought they were very professional, very hardworking and very good at their jobs.
Politeness is a two-way thing.
Maybe the writer was giving out the wrong vibes to the staff. That, I can understand, but there can be some students who approach it the wrong way. They arrive at the hospital with a superior attitude, swanning around thinking I am going to be a doctor, therefore I am better than you and you are beneath me. These students do not seem to realize that they will be working with these rude people once they come home. They might be technicians in the writer s eyes but they deserve respect.