"Get to know your ..."

Another physician-patient story in which I keep hearing the word student instead of patient. 

From Thursday's Morning Edition, a piece 4-minute piece by Richard Knox that is well worth listening to.
Crusty Patient Helps Shape Doctor's Career. 

Mitchell says Dick taught her the difference between medical treatment and medical care.

"To be willing to follow your patient to where they want to go is an uncomfortable journey, and it changed me forever," she says.

She's no longer afraid, she adds, "to allow my patients to take me on their journey. Whatever expertise we have, the patient holds the wisdom of their life. And we need to be with our patients — really be with them."

Mitchell often tells the story to medical students and young doctors in training. Sometimes they say, "How will we have time to get to know our patients?"

Her response is: "How can you afford not to? How can you afford not to connect to your patient before anything else happens

The younger one's student is, the harder it is to be true to what Suzanne Mitchell says here. But if one believes it to be true for adults, then it must be true for everyone.