Conversations

So I'm not the greatest at making conversation with people that I don't know very well. I'm not a social weirdo who lacks conversation skills or anything, it is just an "area for improvement" for this geriatric FW. For example, during my dementia competency my "patient" kept talking about his wife and how they've been married for 67 years and how they always have lunch together. Do I ask him anything else about her? Nope. Not that I don't care, I'm just more focused on making sure that he is doing what I want him to be doing. I should have asked him stuff like, how did you meet? I just don't know what to talk to old people about. For starters I need to stop seeing them as old people and just see them as regular people. So, like a total dork I googled "how to make small talk?" I found some good tips. For me the biggest tip is to just relax! Part of why it is so difficult out on FW is one b/c while making small talk I have to also think about my pitch and my pace and two I have an instructor over my shoulder. Another good tip is paying attention to what they are saying. I think that there is a difference between listening to someone and hearing someone. During my competency I was listening what "he" was saying but I wasn't really hearing him, I was too busy thinking about what I needed to be doing. One tip that isn't on the website is to pretend that your talking to someone that you are comfortable talking with. One of our instructors told me to put her face on all of my patients b/c I can talk to her normally.