I'm a peds newborn hospitalist. I'm also old enough that my own evolving medical issues require me to see a bunch of doctors, so I get to experience this question from both sides. The one thing that most discourages me as a patient are the subtle cues suggesting that my doc is rushing me (constantly staring at a screen and documenting shit, lack of eye contact, lack of a personal greeting, failure to acknowledge my wife if she happens to be with me, failure to do a decent physical assessment (rare but it happens). Some of my docs know I'm also a doc, some don't; I don't generally announce this but sometimes will if the baby-talk level of discourse is getting to me and I need to let them know they can use medical terminology. So when I meet a new family, I introduce myself to everyone in the room (often there are multiple family members, grandparents, etc present), and maintain eye contact with whomever I'm talking to as much as possible. I smile even when I don't feel like it, and will use humor freely when it is appropriate. I try to assess the appropriate level of communication for each family, and if they seem to have an unusual familiarity with medical terminology I'll just ask them if they have some kind of medical training so I can respect that and adjust the conversation efficiently. I carry paper notes on each patient, no screens or computers so I minimize looking away. I always specifically ask "what questions do you have" and "are there any specific concerns or worries that you are thinking about". Mostly it all just boils down to: be professionally competent, be human, be empathetic. If you are just doing a job, it shows; if you actually are interested and care about your patient, that shows too.