I'm pretty short but really only get comments/questions/stupidity about my age at airports. I have NO idea why only airports.
Anyway, when I have shadowed I've been introduced by the doctor as a "student" and I think a lot of the times patients assume I am a medical student. I've only had someone comment on my height once with the doctor in the room (and it was a friendly, joking conversation), so maybe they never commented on that because they are worried about impressing the doctor? Or are too busy talking to the doctor? I had times where I was left in the room to keep the patient company while they waited for a procedure or something but I think because of the "student" introduction we normally talked about their life or where I was in school, it never got too personal.
I had one doctor I shadowed ask me if I thought people could take me seriously because of my height which I thought was a little weird and kind-of implied that HE couldn't take me seriously because of my height. Which is dumb.
I figure if people have an issue with it they are not going to stay my patients because they won't want to come back to a child-doctor or whatever. LOL But I think I make up for my height with a confident personality and posture/expression. I think I have kind-of an intimidating neutral facial expression because I am one of those people who never gets approached by street vendors or that sort of thing. There will always be some duds (and what can you say in a professional setting? That's a hard one, it's not like in everyday life) but hopefully for all of us if we are confident and remain in control of the appointment our patients won't be telling us we look like 14 year olds left and right. haha
For girls based on my airport experiments (I fly way too much for my own good) looking professional (clothes-wise), wearing make-up, and showing some cleavage usually decreases the comments I get. Cleavage one is sad but very, very true.
