"On my face: in my face"

Operations on your face are very much in your face. It is an oddly intimate atmosphere where strangers are very close to you, murmuring in your ear advising you to close your eyes. The knife makes no noise – nothing like the whine of the dentist with their noisy drills and sucking tubes. Background music has no place in the austere day surgery room, although in one of these bizarre and impromptu occurrences that humanises the NHS, the receptionist’s daughter turned up to give us a turn on her cello. You are free to listen in to the conversation in the operating theatre and overtime people forget you are listening. Imagine if instead of the set-piece announcements you get from the pilot, you heard the entire cockpit conversation for the whole flight. Suggestions Please -new script needed My first suggestions for that much needed guidance for authentic yet reassuring dialogue are below – suggestions welcome to create that warm, reassuring and calming ambiance that helps make your operation a success. Here are some of the things I noticed and some ideas:- * I liked hearing the consultant sharing learning with the registrar – what would they do? what were the options?Where are we now? what are the risks? (could be dodgy but not when done as part of an established professional dialogue). It is essential that the registrar plays his/her part reinforcing the professional context by knowing most of the answers or least sounding eager to learn. * Keep it up – by this I mean that if clinicians start by involving the patient in the conversation then they must keep it going. There is a strong temptation as the op goes on, to get absorbed by the procedure – a tricky slice here, a dab there. Silence apart from heavy breathing and random tugging can be disconcerting. Operations on the face bring strangers close enough for kissing. * Discussions about rotas, lunchbreaks and last night’s or indeed tomorrow’s piss-up are to be discouraged. They break the mood rather * Any surprises – comments like 'did you miss that bit?' – or discussion about the non-availability of some piece of kit should be kept to a minimum. While they can act as a reminder that we are all human, they are a bit of a jolt * Jokes must include the patient and not sound as though the patient is the joke. * A note for us as patients is in order – do not guess at who these people are. I mistook a registrar for a houseman. Fortunately they took it well since they were doing an intensive bit of needle work on my nose at the time. If we as patients need to stay calm, then that goes double for the doctors. Miss no chance to tell them what a good job they are doing and how you will write to the Chief Exec to say so. * We need some sort of concordat on what I would call ‘minimising’ vocab – as in ‘a wee bit of bruising’, ‘a little discomfort’ (as in ‘excuse me while I stick a needle in your face’) Tell us what you would like to hear – we need this now and more and more in the future with the growth of day surgery and brilliant local anaesthetics. Don't just lie there, say something and join in the conversation. Another version of this story can be seen here