G717 the real doctor will see you shortly a physician's first year
Author: Matt McCarthy
Publisher: Broadway Books
Publishing Date: 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8041-3867-3
Summary:
In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor—the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when a new admission to the critical care unit almost died his first night on call, he found himself scrambling. Visions of mastery quickly gave way to hopes of simply surviving hospital life, where confidence was hard to come by and no amount of med school training could dispel the terror of facing actual patients.
This funny, candid memoir of McCarthy’s intern year at a New York hospital provides a scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, taking readers into patients’ rooms and doctors’ conferences to witness a physician's journey from ineptitude to competence. McCarthy's one stroke of luck paired him with a brilliant second-year adviser he called “Baio” (owing to his resemblance to the Charles in Charge star), who proved to be a remarkable teacher with a wicked sense of humor. McCarthy would learn even more from the people he cared for, including a man named Benny, who was living in the hospital for months at a time awaiting a heart transplant. But no teacher could help McCarthy when an accident put his own health at risk, and showed him all too painfully the thin line between doctor and patient.
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly offers a window on to hospital life that dispenses with sanctimony and self-seriousness while emphasizing the black-comic paradox of becoming a doctor: How do you learn to save lives in a job where there is no practice?
Author Info:
(From back of the book)
Matt McCarthy is an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical COllege and an assistant attending physician at new York-Presbyterian Hospital. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling Odd Man Out, and his work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Slate, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Deadspin.
Personal Opinion:
I'm neither a doctor nor a nurse, but I have been exposed to the world as a patient and I have been lucky to get the glimpse of this world through a class and some literature I read previously. All I can say its not an easy life that people choose when they decide to enter into the world, and it's a bit frigtening to see doctors as...well, humans who make mistakes but who do their best not to make mistakes. Its quite a pity that my boyfriend is not a reading type, else I'd recommend this book to him. This is both scary and consistent with what I learned about the world of medicine and I doubt that anyone will look at medicine the same way again once they dare to read this book.
I won this from librarything and gave my honest review.
4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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