My junior high students always wanted to know everything, too, and I wanted to stick to academics. But to make everyone happy I had a couple of things I would talk about, dogs, or the cat, or a TV show I saw, and after about thirty seconds of that I would move on to business.
Now I didn’t have a dog or cat, but family members did so I felt I could talk about them. The kids felt like they were getting to know me and I was happy they didn’t.
One point is that it is often the medical professional who starts with the personal questions (part of the bedside manner…), so the patient reciprocates.
I like these suggestions. For what it’s worth, I often would rather not chitchat in similar situations, but I feel pressure to be friendly by asking about the person’s weekend plans or if they’ve seen any good movies. It would be a relief to have someone kindly but professionally tell me that conversation is not needed. And if it could interfere with correct results, I’d definitely want to know!
That is just rude. I can see using a statement like that as a last resort if someone keeps pushing and pushing, but something like this should not be the first thing you say, especially when there are better options to deflect personal questions.
I like the “I’m sorry, but I need to concentrate” coupled with the occasional comment about what’s going on in the exam approach.
Naw. You don’t want to hide that particular glowing personality behind a professional façade. Your patients will love it.
You need to make sure that they’re terrified that you’ll make a mistake too. Explain you need to concentrate and give them some statistics about outcomes that are associated with missing the vital info you’re entrusted in capturing.
One thing that might additionally help is to tell them what Saje said before the exam begins.
Try something along the lines of “Hi, I’m Blindsided and I will be administering your exam today. I would like for you to know that during this exam, it is important that I pay full attention to my monitor. I’d really hate to miss something! I’m sure you feel the same way”. By saying this at the very beginning, you’ll avoid the awkwardness of having to say it after they asked questions.
I find that it’s how you say something is what matters. Say it warmly and smiling. As a patient I would understand.
Yes. I’m so glad someone else does this. It’s not that I have a problem talking about myself, as much as, in social situations, I often have trouble coming up with anything. Asking questions about them works really well. You can even get compliments on being a good conversationalist even though you haven’t said anything for an entire hour other than those little bits to reassure them that you are listening.
Is it too personal to ask what kind of exam this is that takes SO long? Only because the solution to your problem may be having them wear headphones (or having YOU wear them) or providing distractions, but if we don’t know what you’re doing it’s hard to suggest anything. FWIW I’ve been going to healthcare providers since I was a child and I catch myself chattering at them out of nerves. If they said to me at the outset: “This exam requires quiet so that I can really focus on what I’m looking at” I would be in no way upset or anything, I’d just STFU. but wow that’s a LONG time to be in a room with someone performing an exam without any talking at all- up to 2 hours?
You need to take command of the situation rather than letting the patient ramble on. When I was getting a thyroid ultrasound, the tech mentioned that I would need to refrain from talking. I don’t remember how she said it, but I didn’t have a problem with it. I work in a call center myself, and I know from experience that setting the flow of the call as early as possible really cuts down on inane chatter.