Learn the Doctor's office dance steps:
Step 5. Don’t Forget to Practice Your Moves at Home: If you have diabetes, bring your blood sugar log with you. If you have high blood pressure, bring your blood pressure log with you. This information is very important. Although your doctor may check your blood sugar level or blood pressure while you are in the office, this is just one number for one day. What your numbers look like over time are so much more important, and are significant chunks of information for the doctor. No one wins the competition without practicing the moves at home!
Now that you have learned the 5 basic dancing steps to make the most of your visit with your doctor, go ahead and show off your dance moves! Go on, shake it!
By Dr. Jill - Jillofalltrades
Showing posts with label doctors appointment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doctors appointment. Show all posts
#205 Step 4: Bring your "dancing shoes"
Learn the Doctor's office dance steps:
Step 4. Don’t Forget Your Dancing Shoes: As important as those dancing shoes are to learn how to dance, so are your medication bottles when you visit your doctor. A simple “list” is not sufficient. Why? First of all, the amount of information you get from looking at the bottle is invaluable. When I look at the bottle, I can tell when the patient filled it, how many refills they have, when it expires, and how many pills are left in the bottle. Just because a medication is on the patient’s electronic pharmacy records doesn’t mean that they are actually taking it. Also, I occasionally catch mistakes that the pharmacy has made on patient prescriptions in this way. Whatever you do, don’t tell your doctor that you don’t know the name of your medication, only that it’s a “little white pill.” Almost every pill is a “little white pill”!
By Dr. Jill - Jillofalltrades
Step 4. Don’t Forget Your Dancing Shoes: As important as those dancing shoes are to learn how to dance, so are your medication bottles when you visit your doctor. A simple “list” is not sufficient. Why? First of all, the amount of information you get from looking at the bottle is invaluable. When I look at the bottle, I can tell when the patient filled it, how many refills they have, when it expires, and how many pills are left in the bottle. Just because a medication is on the patient’s electronic pharmacy records doesn’t mean that they are actually taking it. Also, I occasionally catch mistakes that the pharmacy has made on patient prescriptions in this way. Whatever you do, don’t tell your doctor that you don’t know the name of your medication, only that it’s a “little white pill.” Almost every pill is a “little white pill”!
By Dr. Jill - Jillofalltrades
#204 Step 3: Sign up for the right class
Learn the Doctor's office dance steps:
Step 3. Make Sure You Sign Up for the Correct Dance Class: Tell the nurse who takes your vital signs and places you in the exam room exactly what you are there for. If you have 1 or 2 problems, make sure you tell the nurse BOTH problems. If you need refills on your medications, make sure to tell the nurse that, too. Why is this? Several reasons. First, the room will need to be set up a certain way depending on your symptoms. For instance, if you are there for a pap smear, the nurse will need to give you a gown to have you change into it and set up the proper supplies. If you are there for chest pain, they may need an electrocardiogram (EKG) before they see you. If you do this after you are already with the doctor, the doctor will need to leave the room (which may cause you to wait while the next patient is seen), ask the nurse return to set up the room, and then return again. This is very inefficient, and it causes a big delay in the patient schedule. Second, the doctor really needs to know why you are there so that they can plan your 15 minute slot appropriately from the get-go. If you are there for headaches and a diabetes follow-up, and you also need your medications refilled, the doctor needs to know all of this before they see you so that they can come up with a timeline of how your short visit time will flow. Whatever you do, do not bring up a new problem after the visit has already begun. So when you sign up to dance, make sure your instructor knows which class you signed up for beforehand – you don’t want to show up for a tap class when you signed up for the tango!
By Dr. Jill - Jillofalltrades
Step 3. Make Sure You Sign Up for the Correct Dance Class: Tell the nurse who takes your vital signs and places you in the exam room exactly what you are there for. If you have 1 or 2 problems, make sure you tell the nurse BOTH problems. If you need refills on your medications, make sure to tell the nurse that, too. Why is this? Several reasons. First, the room will need to be set up a certain way depending on your symptoms. For instance, if you are there for a pap smear, the nurse will need to give you a gown to have you change into it and set up the proper supplies. If you are there for chest pain, they may need an electrocardiogram (EKG) before they see you. If you do this after you are already with the doctor, the doctor will need to leave the room (which may cause you to wait while the next patient is seen), ask the nurse return to set up the room, and then return again. This is very inefficient, and it causes a big delay in the patient schedule. Second, the doctor really needs to know why you are there so that they can plan your 15 minute slot appropriately from the get-go. If you are there for headaches and a diabetes follow-up, and you also need your medications refilled, the doctor needs to know all of this before they see you so that they can come up with a timeline of how your short visit time will flow. Whatever you do, do not bring up a new problem after the visit has already begun. So when you sign up to dance, make sure your instructor knows which class you signed up for beforehand – you don’t want to show up for a tap class when you signed up for the tango!
By Dr. Jill - Jillofalltrades
#201 Learn the doctor's office dance steps
While we are on the topic of Dancing... Dr. Jill who writes the excellent "Jill of all trades" blog has some great advice about how to optimize the communication between doctor and patient to make each meeting as productive and helpful as possible. In the following days I will be posting her advice as part of the Doctor & Patient series here at 365 pain-free days!
#166 Prepare yourself
I have many things to say about Doctor's appointments, of which I've had a few... (insert sarcastic smile here) But today I'm going to be very practical.
Getting what you want always starts with knowing what you want. That's why preparation is so important. Often I am not consciously aware of exactly what I want from a meeting or a conversation, I find myself aimlessly drifting around and letting things happen, and very often end up feeling unfulfilled and frustrated. Of course what I want in a meeting with any doctor is help to resolve my health problems, but what specifically is it I need right now? A diagnosis? A prescription? A referral for seeing a specialist or a new examination?
The I DO ART model is a technique for preparing meetings or important conversations/phone calls, and it works really well for preparing yourself for a doctor's appointment. I don't know where it comes from, but I learnt it at Galaxen Creative. This is how it works: I draw or write the letters I DO ART horizontally on a sheet of paper. Before an important meeting/conversation, I spend 5-10 minutes on filling in the template, jotting down a few words for every letter, filling in these topics:
I - Intention - What is my intention with the conversation?
DO - Desired Outcome - What do I want to happen, what is my specific goal with the conversation?
A - Agenda - What are the topics that I need to talk about, is there a set agenda or can I make one?
R - Rules and Roles - What are the rules for the meeting, are there any set roles, as in who is responsible for what?
T - Time - How many minutes are set aside for the meeting/ appointment?
Taking a little time to do this simple preparation is a good way to prepare myself mentally before any appointment or meeting, I hope it can help you too!
PS: I've seen this model called I DO ARRT too, where Rules & Roles have a separate line each. For me it works fine this way
#111 Show how you feel
It's never too late to get real and be honest. If you feel happy and want to share it, you don't need any excuses to do so (like happy turban Tuesday from Natalie Dee...) so why should it be any different when you're feeling low?
"I'm hurting, I'm tired and I need help". How often haven't we needed to say those words, but not been able to actually say them?
Researchers say that as much as 57% of our communication is transmitted through body language, and further 36% is voice volume and tonality ... that means only 7% of your communication is through the actual words you say.
So showing how you feel is a good way of ensuring better communication. Be aware that your whole body is communicating all the time, and unfortunately this fact can be crucial when you have a doctor's appointment. Is your body language matching what you are saying, or are you putting on a brave facade for both yourself and your doc? If so why? Who are you trying to help by not letting your feelings show?
If necessary remember that a little everyday craziness can go along way.
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