Quick PSA for those writing fics:
Hey whumplings- Medical professionals and first responders typically won’t say “Its going to be okay.” We don’t know that, and since we’re a voice of authority, it would be a huge betrayal of trust to promise a positive outcome if the outcome turned out to be… less than positive.
Here are some alternative words of encouragement/comfort for your fics:
- “You’re in good hands here”
- “We’re going to do everything we can for you.”
- “It’s (patient action, emotion, reaction) okay.”
- “You’re doing great.”
- “We’re going to do _________”
- “_______ is working the way we expected.”
- “It hurts/it’s unfair/its crappy (mirroring/validating/paraphrasing emotion or discomfort)”
- “We’re doing this together”
- “I see you trying- keep it up! (validating/rewarding a struggle/attempt)”
- “Take it easy, we’re going to do a lot of the work here/relax- we’ll tell you when to help us/we’re going to help you but you’re going to do most of this yourself/we need to know/see _____ (generally managing patient expectations for their involvement in care)”
- Little tricks and tips that make the med person look more competent, especially before something more in-depth (smelling alcohol pads for nausea, putting two tourniquets on for blood draws/IVs in hard-to-stick patients, coffee grounds to make the room smell nicer, telling the person to wiggle their pinky toe to take their mind off of something briefly unpleasant).
arcticflakes
