ABSTRACT
Anticipating and rehearsing – trying new steps: ‘practice makes perfect’ Let us assume that there has been a successful enactment and resolution of a typical problem in the surgery. The clinician can then get the family to anticipate the next similar event and rehearse their responses. To do this, the family could be asked:
• ‘What are you going to do the next time this happens? Who is going to do what?’ • ‘I now want you to predict when this next time is. Today? Tomorrow? At what
time? What are you going to do Mr X? And what about you Mrs X?’ • ‘Would it perhaps be better if I prescribed a crisis for you, so that you can
have a chance to put into practice what you’ve tried here? Oh, you don’t need that – well, can you then engineer your own crisis and talk about how you’re going to resolve it?’
