The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician's First Year by Matt McCarthy

More info*

Publication date: 2015
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Pages: 323
My rating: 4 stars
Ages:18+

"Over the course of the year, I'd developed a belief that if I had touched a patient--if our flesh had made even slight contact--that person was my professional responsibility." Dr. Matt McCarthy started his internship at Columbia as a Harvard grad, but that didn't make actually working on patients any easier. Through accidents and mistakes, McCarthy takes us on a backstage view of what it takes to become a doctor.

This book was so interesting. Easy to read, without feeling like McCarthy was condescending to me. I had never thought much about the process that a doctor goes through to become a competent doctor. It really seems like a trial by fire process.

I became invested not only in McCarthy, eagerly reading to see what would become of him, but of his patients. At the beginning of McCarthy's first year, I found myself thinking "I don't want some intern working on me!" Then as the year progressed, I started seeing how much McCarthy cared, how much he tried not to care, and how much he couldn't help but care. And I think I would want a doctor like that. If I were to ever end up in the hospital (knock on wood) I would want a doctor who felt that I was his professional responsibility from the moment he touched me.

I gained a lot more respect for doctors (and I respected them a lot already) from reading this book and seeing how their education doesn't end when they graduate, but continues on throughout their career.

There is some hard language throughout this book.

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.