Does your HS junior/senior have less “real life” experience due to Covid? How would you fix that?

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I thought about this some more and here’s what I wished we had talked about with regards to doctors and dentists

  1. Judgment. How to know when to see the doctor, how to evaluate when you feel worse or better, if medicine is working, etc. This is something that comes with life experience but even introducing the idea that she can evaluate how she’s feeling and make a call to get help would have been useful

  2. Questioning authority. Doctors can be very rushed and it’s been my experience that they can jump to conclusions based on a lot of factors, especially in an urgent care or ER environment. My daughter is very accepting of authority and wasn’t comfortable pushing back or asking questions when a doctor recommended a treatment that didn’t make sense. Also, comes with practice, but an overall conversation about how to speak up, not let the doctor rush away if you need to ask questions, and how to say something is not working, are good things to talk about. Ideally, you can role model this at an appointment they have and then discuss what happened on the way home.

  3. Insurance. Good grief, insurance can be tricky. We have great insurance but the tactical details of having the card, filling out forms, where the ID numbers are, etc.

  4. Making and canceling appointments. This has more to do with the phone skills others have mentioned but it’s a real thing for kids who feel far more comfortable typing than talking

Hope this helps!

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