Medicine: Say, Doc ...

Do people judge a doctor by whether or not he is a good listener? "In his history-taking," says New York Medicine, "a physician finds the patient eager to relate his symptoms with exhausting attention to detail and trivia ... It is understandable why doctors become impatient with their patients . . . But becoming impatient and showing impatience are vastly different things . . . Our graces may be many, our ideals high, our errors not too many; but ... we must learn [that] much of the art of medicine resolves itself into the art of listening."

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