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As an anaesthetist who works in a children’s hospital, I frequently
have to interview both my child patients and also my patients’ parents.
This three way interview has to fulfil the requirements of a pre-operative
visit. I must communicate at a level that a child can understand and then
for a different part of the interview, at a level that the parent
understands. The difference here is that the memory of the pre-operative
visit is not going to clouded by the anaesthetic, as the parent has the
memory and the child has the anaesthetic.
I was aware from research in the sixties that motorists stopped by
the police felt over-borne by being talked at, through the car window, and
some police forces seek to cast a less negative impression on those
motorists they stop by asking them to get out of the car and converse face
to face. Textbooks on solicitors’ practice routinely have chapters on the
lay-out of the lawyer’s office and structure of the client-lawgiver
interview.
Therefore when I am interviewing the parent, I routinely sit in the
lowest chair that is clustered around the bed of the patient I will
anaesthetise, so that even the most diminutive parent towers over me. I
may mention to her as she is towering over me, she can give me hell if I
say anything that she doesn’t like. She can waggle a finger and I can look
up meekly if I like. Being the lowest seated person on the ward is hardly
a challenge on a children’s ward as I can take up one of the small chairs
– making sure that there isn’t a child in it first, and sit on that.
This intervention has not been tested for efficacy or efficiency by
double blind controlled trial and therefore has no evidence base, except
the lack of any complaint – “he sat in and broke my child’s chair”.
High Chair
As an anaesthetist who works in a children’s hospital, I frequently
have to interview both my child patients and also my patients’ parents.
This three way interview has to fulfil the requirements of a pre-operative
visit. I must communicate at a level that a child can understand and then
for a different part of the interview, at a level that the parent
understands. The difference here is that the memory of the pre-operative
visit is not going to clouded by the anaesthetic, as the parent has the
memory and the child has the anaesthetic.
I was aware from research in the sixties that motorists stopped by
the police felt over-borne by being talked at, through the car window, and
some police forces seek to cast a less negative impression on those
motorists they stop by asking them to get out of the car and converse face
to face. Textbooks on solicitors’ practice routinely have chapters on the
lay-out of the lawyer’s office and structure of the client-lawgiver
interview.
Therefore when I am interviewing the parent, I routinely sit in the
lowest chair that is clustered around the bed of the patient I will
anaesthetise, so that even the most diminutive parent towers over me. I
may mention to her as she is towering over me, she can give me hell if I
say anything that she doesn’t like. She can waggle a finger and I can look
up meekly if I like. Being the lowest seated person on the ward is hardly
a challenge on a children’s ward as I can take up one of the small chairs
– making sure that there isn’t a child in it first, and sit on that.
This intervention has not been tested for efficacy or efficiency by
double blind controlled trial and therefore has no evidence base, except
the lack of any complaint – “he sat in and broke my child’s chair”.
Oliver Dearlove FRCA
Competing interests:
Nil relevant
Competing interests: No competing interests