My father has two best friends from college. Both of them decided to study the same careers, medicine, to become a doctor. Since my father was in college, he always remembered the different personalities of his two friends. One of them was Carl and the other one was John. After my father and his friends graduated, they transferred to the university to finish their studies. Many years passed, and now they all are adults with their own jobs and families. Carl has his own doctor’s office in Downtown and John works in a big popular hospital.
Everyday Carl and John have to see many patients in their jobs. They specialize in general medicine, and work with patients from eighteen years old and older. They have been working for ten years, so they have extensive experience working with people. Carl is the kind of person that is always worried about people’s emotions. When Carl is talking with his patients, he spends a lot of time asking them about their feelings, emotions, and personal thoughts, before asking them about the real problem.
Carl is interested in people’s feelings, because he thinks that any illness or disease that people has is related to a psychological stage. Carl’s office is always full of people and he loves that. He talks with people from a long time ago, because he has a really good memory of his old patients that go to visit him. In addition, Carl is a very persistent person; he is always trying to find the answer to the problem, and never gets tired of looking for it. And if sometimes he cannot find the cure for the problem he kindly asks for help.
On the other hand, John is the kind of people that likes to go directly to the point, and does not like to waste time talking about something that is not related to the problem. John always talks bluntly with his patients and never feels mercy or sadness for them. He is always running around his office to not get late to each appointment. In every moment he is worried about the time. John cares more about how many patients he had for the day than what was the problem of each patient. John’s philosophy about medicine is completely different from Carl’s philosophy.
John believes that his only task is to know each person’s illness and find the cure; however, Carl’s belief is completely different. Carl thinks that his job is a lot more than just knowing the problem and finding the cure for it. Carl is worried about why the patient got that problem and how to prevent it in the future. Also, Carl is a lot more positive than John is in any situation. Carl is always being optimistic about any problem that he is trying to cure, even if it is a really complicated one.
While, John is always trying to anticipate how is he going to tell the bad news to his patients, even before trying to find the cure. Carl and John are really good doctors, they are professionals, they know how to treat the problems, and have a long term experience. But, yet that is not always enough to choose the best doctor. Each person has a different personality, qualities, and values; and sometimes those characteristics can influence the performance in their jobs.
