She tapped her pen on a legal pad, briefly stopped and motioned for me to take the seat opposite. Maggie was a psychology intern. She was about 25, tall and wore her blond hair long and straight. She was trim with a nice figure; she almost certainly went to the gym on a regular basis. Today she wore high heels and a black suit jacket underneath which was a sheer white blouse. She sat with her legs crossed. Her matching black skirt came down to about the mid thigh.

At the conclusion of the standardized patient interview, Maggie's job was to review the video footage with the resident and give him or her feedback on how he or she handled the actor who had been pretending to be a depressed patient. Maggie looked at me through her dark-framed glasses. I wondered whether or not they contained prescription lenses. "So, how do you think you did with this patient encounter?" She sat about 3 feet away, facing me with her legs crossed. Her long, white legs seemed to go on forever. I pondered this while allowing her to induce me to manufacture some feedback on my performance. Feedback on one's performance within a patient encounter, whether real or simulated, is entirely subjective and largely bullshit. As far as I'm concerned, an encounter with a patient is either successful or unsuccessful. It is successful if a plan of action is developed that everyone is on board with. Sometimes a plan is developed, but only partially implement or sometimes the plan represents a compromise between what the doctor recommends and what the patient is willing to do. In these cases I would call the encounter partially successful. Better doctors are the ones who facilitate the most successful patient encounters. I pondered this as Maggie leaned forward, uncrossed her legs and said something about "eye contact" and "empathy."

"What do you think you could improve upon for next time?" She leaned back as she asked me this and I took note that there was just enough separation between her knees at this angle to make visible the shiny, white panties she was wearing. She crossed her legs again as I said something about being "patient-focused" and asking open ended questions.

There was nothing noteworthy about the rest of our exchange and I left the interview hoping to get "feedback" from Maggie again sometime.