The most important quality a doctor needs to have is the ability to listen. Doctors deal with a lot of people, and not all of them are going to be in the same emotional state, or have the same level of health literacy. They may be scared, confused, or angry, and all of these things can affect their communication with their doctor. When I was younger, I had to have surgery on my ear. I was only five years old at the time, so I didn't understand what was happening then. I just knew that I had to go in for an appointment and come back out, and that my parents were going to stay with me. It was all very scary! Before we left for the hospital, my dad sat me down and explained exactly what was going to happen: how he would talk me through each step of the process as it happened, that I wouldn't feel any pain during surgery because they were going to give me medicine to make everything feel like a dream, that he would stay with me until I fell asleep from those medicines and then he would go wait outside for them to finish up. He did such a good job talking about everything that it really helped calm my nerves about what was about to happen.