<p>I'm kind of shy around patients and doctors and I don't know how to approach them. I mean, what do I say to patients? how are you doing? If their in the ER, chances are they've had better times. Also I can't see myself going "awwwww" and pat babies on the head like my fellow volunteers do (though it seems to make the patients family more comfortable). Probability not the best description but I hope you get the point.
As for talking to doctors, it kinda hard to approach them since they are always busy and never even glance at you.
Anyways suffice to say, I'm not a people person, which I hope to change someday as I hear doctors have to interact a lot with people. How do you approach patients and especially doctors?</p>
<p>smiles are key</p>
<p>just be friendly and people will naturally feel more comfortable with you…of course, if someone is writhing in pain you probably shouldnt walk into the room beaming…but offer a sympathetic look…hand on the shoulder..</p>
<p>as far as doctors go…i need some advice on that as well…</p>
<p>I’m an EMT, and a lot of times, for patients who are stable and conscious, it’s just a 15-20 minute ride to the hospital without much to do other than check vitals once or twice. So the rest of the time I try to talk to them about something or other, it puts them at ease. I’ll usually engage them in conversation, and then just listen most of the time, occasionally making a comment to show them I’m listening, or ask questions to get them to talk more.</p>
<p>For example, one guy we were transporting was a referee at a youth soccer game who’d been injured, so I asked him how long he’d been reffing, and he started talking about his reffing experiences for 10 or 15 minutes.</p>
<p>Another guy, we were getting his insurance/address and found out he was from Canada. I asked him what part of Canada, and he talked for 15 minutes about why he was visiting New England, what Canada is like, what he likes about Canada and the US, etc. So off of one or two questions, he opened up quite a bit.</p>
<p>In other words, just find something about them you can ask them about, even if it’s mundane. Most patients I’ve found are quite willing to talk at length about themselves.</p>
<p>And for doctors, well I don’t have a ton of experience talking to them randomly in a hospital setting, but just approach them and ask them about what they’re doing. If they are receptive and not annoyed, ask them if there’s anything interesting to see or do or ask about their experiences. If they seem irritated by you, just move on and find another doc.</p>
<p>I recently started volunteering in an ER and can relate, as the EM doctors are a bit intimidating. The patients are easy to approach; just smile and make small-talk when appropriate. Introduce yourself as a volunteer and tell them your name. If you get to shadow a doctor and he/she lets you into a room with a patient, then you dont need to say anything; just stand back and observe. </p>
<p>Last week I was volunteering in the urgent-care wing of the ER (not the trauma part) on a really slow day. After asking 5 nurses if I could help with anything, I ended up standing by the nurses station looking extraordinarily awkward and bored. This EM doctor comes out of nowhere and asks me if Im pre-med and I say yes. She tells me that she always hated volunteering when she was pre-med due to the boredom and unapproachable doctors. So she lets me shadow her and teaches me cool stuff about finding fractures, reading EKGs, etc. We had this discussion about neuron action potentials and how she still refers to her med school notes. She even told me which doctors are cool with shadowing and which are asses toward pre-meds. </p>
<p>If you dont come across any doctors like that, then you just have to be assertive.</p>
<p>Now I usually just approach a doctor who doesn’t have a vague look of annoyance, introduce myself as a volunteer, and ask if I can help out with anything. Of course that’s easier said than done. Many EM docs are pretty surly at my hospital. But whats the worst that could happen? Theyll just say theyre too busy.</p>
<p>Are you seriously asking nerdy pre-meds “How-to-Be-Social” on an even nerdier online forum?</p>
<p>Sorry, Prism - but seriously? Four words, sweetie: Put. Yourself. Out. There. I’ve logged over 500 hours of volunteering in ICUs/ERs/ORs, and there are TONS of other pre-meds who do the same. So how do we do it? Simple. We put ourselves out there. Ask doctors, nurses, and/or lab techs cordially and nicely if there’s anything you can do. If not, don’t think twice. Grab your iPhone and go into your little own facebook/texting world. You’re the one logging in the hours, so you might-as-well be using your thumbs to text a friend than standing awkwardly twiddling them (assuming you have friends).</p>
<p>Enough with the jokes. My advice? Arrive at the hospital EARLY (6-7am) when the doctors haven’t <em>gotten busy</em> yet (no pun intended?). They’re groggier, sleepier, and probably tamer. Don’t volunteer for long hours periods of time (you’ll get irritable), and try to vary it up between departments if possible. How to approach a doctor? Again. Be nice, approachable, and open-minded. How to approach a patient? Again. Be nice, approachable, and open-minded. That works for me, so it must not be rocket science :)</p>
<p>When you walk by a patient’s room you’re probably saying to youself why would a patient, who is probably in a lot of discomfort, want to talk to a volunteer who has no experience in medicine. At first I felt that way as well, but as time went on I found that patients who are in the most discomfort are the ones who wants to talk to someone the most, especially when they don’t have family with them. Think about it from their shoes, they are in a place that is foreign to them, probably scary, especially for the little children. The doctor was talking to the patient for 2 minutes, the nurse probably 5 minutes, so for the other 53 minutes waiting for the labs to come back they want to tell their story about what happened and their grandmotherly advice on life. You meet a lot of interesting people. All you have to do is say that you’re a volunteer and ask if there is anything that they needed and ask how they are feeling. You can also talk to the family members when the patient is not in the room, see how they are feeling. Medical treatments are not just what the patient wants, a lot of the patient’s family demands have to be met too.</p>
<p>Once a physician knows you have interacted with a specific patients, you can just go up to the doc and ask about the diagnosis, ask about the treatment, the prognosis, and if there is anything that you don’t understand such as medical procedures, ask!</p>
<p>But I do have to ask…if you’re not a people person why do you want to go into medicine?</p>