Abstract
Small talk in medical visits affords the opportunity for nurse practitioners (NPs) and patients to create relationships by engaging in nontransactional talk. In addition, it may also provide insights into a patient’s life, revealing medically relevant information. Although small talk may be viewed as taking time away from the transactional work of the visit (Roter & Hall, Doctors talking with patients/patients talking with doctors: Improving communication in medical visits, Praeger, 1993), it is also a way for NPs to perform their professional competency by taking a holistic approach and constructing positive relationships. Small talk, despite being a departure from the transactional work of the visit, can also contribute to it.
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Notes
- 1.
The fact that Mr. Griffin so easily jokes with Karen and, even more significantly, that he brings her a gift, also reflects the current relationship between them.
- 2.
Although the topic is, once again, based around the Thanksgiving holiday, the work that Sarah is doing is not atypical in medical visits. The holiday likely makes it easier to initiate small talk since there is a shared topic readily at hand; however, Sarah’s first comment about Mr. Quinn taking his wife to lunch could have occurred at any time of the year and highlights her shift to a relational frame at the closing of the visit and her willingness to engage in non-work-related talk.
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Defibaugh, S. (2018). Caring as Competent: Small Talk in Medical Visits. In: Nurse Practitioners and the Performance of Professional Competency. Communicating in Professions and Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68354-6_5
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