Bedside Manner Blog

TREATMENT HUMOR Practitioners who perform procedures that are either boring or frightening to most patients should find treatment humor extremely helpful. This material doesn’t work for simple exams or treating patients under general anesthesia. When explaining your procedure to a patient, you can get a good laugh or at least set the tone away from seriousness with this offering: DOCTOR “During this procedure there will be absolutely no pain (pause) for me and my staff.”  You emphasize absolutely. This line provides a great use of the unexpected to ...

It was entertainment night at the senior center. The amazing Claude was appearing that night and the crowd waited anxiously to see the famed hypnotist. When Claude came to the stage, he announced, “Unlike most hypnotists who invite two or three people from the audience to come up and get put into a trance, I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience.” He removed a beautiful antique watch from his coat pocket and said, “I want each and every one of you to keep your eye on this antique watch. It’s a very special watch. It has been in my family for six g ...