Good Doctor by Mitchell Doerr

Sometimes at my clinic, it felt like a lot of the staff were just going through the motions of treating patients. I understand that sometimes treating patients can get monotonous and can be easier to just ask the same questions, take vitals, and then move on. However, early on in my visit to the clinic, it was clear that one doctor really spent time talking to her patients and getting to know them and their concerns. As a result, her patients seemed to be much happier and pleased with their visit. One particular time, I was able to observe this doctor with her patients in the room. I felt like I was listening to a conversational dance, hence my idea for my project. In this entire encounter, both the doctor and the patient were engaged, they were feeding off each other, and both completed their conversation with satisfaction. Clearly there is a challenge when it comes to engaging with patients. As a physician, it is very easy to feel like you are doing the same thing everyday, but it is extremely important to remember that each patient is coming in with a completely different experience from your previous patients and can be susceptible to vulnerability. I believe this goes hand in hand with being a virtuous professional, and fits perfectly into Compassion. If a doctor is treating patients with compassion, they are really empathizing with the patient so much that they are in sync with their own conversational dance. Every doctor's patient deserves this level of compassion and I am glad I was able to witness such compassion in action at my clinic. After witnessing this compassion, I am encouraged to carry this with me as I begin my own career as a physician. Each day, as I enter my work environment, I will tell myself that each appointment is a new slate. Each patient and experience is different from all the previous interactions and they deserve my undivided attention and my flexibility to take the time with each patient, whether that is 5 minutes or 30 minutes. 

- Mitchel Doerr