Two years ago today, I was sitting alone with my anatomy book in a desolate Taco Bell/KFC celebrating both my birthday and the first day of classes with some stale cinnamon twists. Now, as I write this, I'm riding the subway into the city to meet my SO for dinner and a show, after a long day working in a hospital. Crazy what a couple years can do.
Today's new psych clerkship experience was having a patient I only knew from walking through another unit suddenly become one of my patients. My supervising doc was very surprised at my familiarity given that I shouldn't have known him. Actually, he was one of the patients that inspired last Friday's post about the utility vs futility of talking to temporarily helpless patients.
I would walk through the hallway by his room and, even though I was a total stranger to him, he called me over and talked. At first the conversation seemed rational, but it quickly took a turn for the bizarre. He's a hard guy to just walk away from though, so I probably spent a good 20 talking to him. I wound up doing the same nearly every day last week. Part of what seemed so interesting was that I had no reason to know him; so unlike all the other patient interactions I have in the hospital, this time I wasn't searching for an answer or gathering back story - just talking.
So today his business became my business. And I quickly discovered that I already knew a lot about him even though I hadn't intentionally tried to discover anything through our prior conversations. Simply listening to people, with no need of special techniques or added motivation, is all you need to learn about them and build a relationship. TIL.
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