others: part 2

INVESTIGATION

This month, we’ll think about writing about other folks and writing TO other folks the same way health professionals think about bedside manner. I’m not a doctor, but I am a speech-language pathologist. When you’re an allied health therapist, bedside manner is extra important because you’re trying to get folks to change their habits, to participate in “therapy” of some kind.

And, regardless of the client that walks through the door: No matter what, we medical professionals are required to offer care, be neutral or kind, communicate clearly, and tell the truth.

This isn’t always easy. I have been an allied health professional for several years now, and I have worked with all sorts of clients. I often don’t completely agree with my clients’ lifestyle, politics, religious preference, or health choices, but when they are in front of me, I have to offer care according to my scope of practice.

A healthcare professional’s scope of practice is what they are allowed to treat and how they are allowed to treat it. Acupuncturists can perform acupuncture but not, for example, speech therapy. Physical therapists cannot perform surgery. Radiologists can read and interpret x-rays, but they cannot provide breathing treatments. And so on.

This is obvious, right? When you work in science or math, sometimes, the boundaries are a little bit more simple than the ones we work with as writers.

Our boundaries, as writers, are super important.

This month, we’ll explore the second person form, the letter, the speech, the sermon. We’ll explore writing to a “you.” Which you and how we write it, though, is the crux.