Quotables....

"You're dating a Jew? I don't really like them Jews" - A patient, to me
"See, we doctors, we're not people people. We're science people." -A robot disguised as an attending physician.

Ok, yeah, the second quote was actually a physician that I worked with recently. Doctors ARE people people. Or they should be, at least.

He made that comment at the beginning of my 2 hours following him around. I tried to put it aside and just observe his style. Mechanical, efficient, quick. The patients love him. He is overly excited when they do stuff right and applauds them loudly, yelling things like "beautiful!" and "magnificent!" whenever blood glucose measurements are good and hypertension's under control. It's like he's the Emeril of medicine. "So, is this dude a good doctor"... I asked myself. Well, let's see here: patients like him, check. Patients are doing exceptionally well with him, check. He is thorough, check. He dictates his notes IN THE ROOM just after patient interview, which seems so weird to me, but actually probably reduces medical error. His awkwardness is trumped by all that other good stuff. Hooray! He's a good doctor. But he's not a people person.

That's so weird to me. Maybe he's learned to be a people person, and he doesn't realize it yet.