Verbal infancy

Doctors talk way too much.

I know. I've listened to them not shut up for two and half years, morning, most afternoons, and sometimes in my nightmares. Sometimes nightmares in the morning while they're talking too much and I'm sleeping too little. I don't know why doctors talk so much. I have a feeling it's a reflex retained from when they were children and were unable to communicate their need for attention in any form other than vocalizing loudly, painfully, and without regard for whoever may or may not be listening. Everybody needs attention, but as I've learned, doctors and babies especially.

One of the things that I've stopped doing is asking questions unless I've found something to sit on. Simple queries such as "Given this patient profile, should I do a CT head?" or "Where are the sutures?" invariably lead to 15 minute diatribes on each study completed in the last decade on the subject followed by a brief examination of the Socratic method versus problem based learning, and ultimately the failure to recall what the original question was.

So far the colleagues who've struck me as smart are the ones that say less. Also, the ones that struck me as idiots say more.

Bloggers included.