Heyo!
I would love some advice from y'all on how to dodge answering all these personal questions my patients ask me! I work in a busy ED and see multiple people a day. It seems like so many patients or visitors ask old I am? am I married? do I have kids? do I want kids? On and on. I've been asked who I VOTED for at least 10 times...(seriously with our political climate that's such a scary question to answer 😳).
I get it, we're building a rapport and in all honesty I'm asking them some pretty dang personal questions too, but I see so many patients and sometimes just don't want to answer/ feel like it's anyones business. I also don't want to come off as nurse robot and say "I don't talk about my personal life with my patients! Bleep bloop bloop" or something because that's really not how I am, I'm just tired of the questions! Ask me questions about your meds, your diagnosis, etc. Not my 20 year life plan.
For the record, I live in a pretty southern town and am happily living with my boyfriend (the shame!), with no kids and no ring so part of my irritation with all the questions is probably the judgement eyes/unsolicited advice I get when I give my answers.
So, how do you guys not answer these type of questions and still make sure your patients like you?