Q: I’m wanting to take patient conversations away from their symptoms, but I find myself asking each patient “how are they” when they come into my room. Do you have any suggestions for alternative approaches to greeting the patient in a way that doesn’t open up discussions about their symptoms?
A: You make it sound as if knowing about a patient’s subjective evaluation of their health is a bad thing or something that should be avoided. Or, something to be discussed only after some other “higher purpose” topic.
I’ve heard this before. Usually from chiropractic consultants (or their clients) who have the mistaken notion that by not discussing a patient’s symptoms, it will somehow compel patients to not judge their health by how they feel or the necessity of chiropractic care based on them.
If this were only so.
Creating a taboo topic is NOT the way to accomplish this. Because a symptom is not intrinsically good or bad. Instead, it’s the meaning we attach to the symptom that has significance. Naturally, helping patients embrace a new meaning to their headache or back pain is a more formidable task!
However, if you don’t want to go down that road, why not greet patients with something like, “So, what’s great today?” Or, “What’s worth celebrating?"