One of the cool things I can do is turn a negative into a positive, just like that!

I think I have a pretty high success rate too! I haven’t gone and done the math or anything, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and label my claim as fact.

For an example, I walked in on a colleague at the gym where they had just attempted an exercise, and they stated they we’re happy that I didn’t see their ugly form.

Boom! Just like that. I snapped back with an “Awe..” and proceeded with a “but that means I didn’t get to see your amazing learning opportunity!”

Let’s skip ahead a little bit and get to the point where this becomes relevant.

Right now, travel in general has been a particularly important part of the Covid conversation, and frankly it’s getting a tad bit confusing.

So what I did was take my uncanny ability to turn a negative into a positive and simplified it.

Here’s what I do.

At the end of most appointments I ask my patients if we’ll be booking their next visit, and if they do, I’ll tell them that the soonest I can book them in again is two weeks from today, unless they plan on traveling anytime soon.

When I ask this question I find that it instantly gets people’s brain out of calendar mode and into critically thinking mode, and I then follow up by adding that it also includes anyone they live with.

I think as health professionals that translating screening questions into actual conversation is part of our job. We’re already doing it when you think about it. I mean, one day you’re studying anatomy from a textbook, and the next you’re augmenting the position of someone’s shoulder blade. It’s not that fundamentally different.

Not only do I feel, if only on a slight level, a moderate sprinkling of due diligence has been performed, I also felt particularly proud about this one and wanted to share it with you.

I’m really good at noticing the small things and diving into details about them, and we don’t seem to be sharing too much of them anymore.

So here’s my attempt to remind everyone to keep talking about the small things, in a time when they are so very, very important.