A scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, bringing readers into the critical care unit to see one burgeoning physician’s journey from ineptitude to competence.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 … 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?
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I’m glad I read this book, but also kinda wish I hadn’t. There are aspects of a doctor’s training that are little short of horrifying. I learned that a patient’s life is in the hands of someone who probably shouldn’t be in charge of a life, yet. The “doctor” is not just simply a brand-new graduate, but is handicapped by a system that requires them to go 30 or more hours without sleep! I understand emergencies can happen, but this seems like an extraordinarily dangerous way to train life-savers. I now understand – partly – why so many people die in hospital, and why there are so many lawsuits. This is a frightening form of education.
The moment I saw the title I knew that I had to read this book. It is the story of a Doctor’s experiences during his internship. Having worked in the hospital setting at a large teaching hospital in Manhattan (as an RN), I can say I caught glimpses of many situations that were brought to mind while reading.
We all underestimate the problems of others. But this book lets you know that it not the problems we face, but how we deal with the problems that count.
Well written
It was very interesting and humorous in reading the long training and hours doctors go through. Our bookclub will be reading this book in the coming year.
All too true – today internships are over regulated so that doctors in training get nap time and a limited work week.
Unfortunately sick patients don’t get naps and the process of illness doesn’t take breaks!
The book is a tribute to the tough training it should take to make a dedicated physician!
Excellent account of the life of a first year resident. A very human look at the life of a young doctor struggling to learn his profession and the emotional pitfalls of dealing with the very sick and dying.
I so enjoyed this memoir of a smart doctor’s last year as an intern.
Original, unique and informative.
Too much info about personal feelings to various situations.
Absolutely true, funny, and realistic.
If this is the real world, I don’t seem to live in it. If all doctors talk, think, and act this way, I am glad they do not show or speak it in the patient appointments. It could have been great to read with all the crap.
While this book won’t inspire confidence in being treated by an intern when next you go to the hospital, you will learn a great deal of what goes on inside an intern’s head and how the hierarchy of a hospital works. Interesting book and well written.
I thought it might be interesting, year in an intern’s life, and it was. Also well written.
Interesting at first. He made a huge deal about being stuck with a needle doing a blood draw from a HIV + patient…then “0”…on & on about very little.
It was written by a doctor describing his internship years at Columbia Hospital in NYC. It gives an appreciation of what our doctors and nurses and other hospital staff do for the public they treat on a daily basis.
Really interesting take on an MD to be…well written with a wonderful portrayal of a sympathetic young man trying to manage the demands of internship and the demands of his humanity.
Insightful look into the training of doctors. Provides a very human look at the insecurities that drs in training experience and the very human feelings they experience for their patients.
This book started off good but it got weird. I didn’t finish it I don’t recommend it.
Excellent look at the first year of hands on becoming a doctor. Told with humor and lots of self reflection. How the system takes someone from ground zero to teaching others in a exhaustive short year.