More Than Medical Training

There are so many mentors I have had during my medical training. One of the things that stuck with me the most was a physician I rotated with always wrote down one personal thing about each patient he saw. When that patient would follow up he would ask them about the thing he wrote down. It could have been about a trip they were taking or a great achievement of one of their children. I did not appreciate it at the time but what he was doing was making the patient feel more comfortable. Now many years later, I always like to bring up personal things with my patients to make their appointments more comfortable.