Observation skills
Posted on August 9th, 2008 by Matt.
Stop. Don’t move. Don’t even think. What colour is the front door of your house?
You know, the one you walk through every day. It’s the one you’ve got the key for. It’s quite big, you know, with a certain type of handle. Front of your house, you know which one I mean.
Now honestly, answer me this, could you answer this question correctly and honestly in less than 2 seconds? I couldn’t.
I’ve asked more than 40 people at my halls to correctly name the colour of the 3 front doors. They are Red, Green, and Blue (in that order). Most people guessed a colour other than those three, and nobody identified that they were each a different colour.
You’re reading this because you want to be a doctor. Before you start medical school, my advice to you would be: brush up on your observation skills. Suggestions include the doors in college, the name of your college cleaner, the name of the shopkeeper on the corner, the colour of the drivers uniform on the bus/train, the road name of the shortcut you use to get to town, the name of the all the bar staff in your local.
For your information, mine are glass/automatic, don’t know, don’t know, white shirt & navy trousers, St. Bede’s Terrace, and I don’t know. But guess what I’ll make it my business to find out. And one more thing, doctors need to be approachable – are you the kind of person to start spontaneously talking to the person sitting next to you on the bus? If not, get the confidence and try it – it can be quite fun!
Matt says: You’ll interact with all sorts of people as a medic. Get to know each one personally, and make time to say “Hello” to them.
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