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Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine
A moving look at the challenges and triumphs of caregiving, told through candid literary accounts by more than 60 doctors, nurses, and other healers
Where It Hurts invites us to peer into the space between health and illness, life and death, through the voices of the people who work on medicine’s frontlines: doctors, nurses, EMTs, therapists, and more. In raw and revealing essays, stories, and poems, they share what it’s like to deal with difficult patients, life-changing diagnoses, private doubts, painful failures, and the victories that keep them going.
By turns conversational, spare, urgent, poetic, plain-spoken, heart-rending, and heart-mending, each piece offers a glimpse into the extraordinary daily realities of those charged with taking care of us at our most vulnerable.
A doctor shares the do-or-die pep talk she gives herself while performing a life-saving procedure.
A nurse wrestles with caring for a woman accused of murder.
A neurologist recalls how learning the art of pole dancing helped her through residency.
A GI fellow serves us an unorthodox “cure” for an ER regular with a dangerous love for fajitas.
A surgeon-poet imagines inviting Death over for tea.
Anger, shame, panic, loneliness, love, hate, wonder, joy: They’re all part of a day’s work. As the authors of each piece unpack the highs and lows of their vocation, they teach us what it means to empathize deeply, to live fully, and to be human.
- GenresNonfictionMedical
288 pages, Paperback
Published March 24, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 24, 2026
4⭐️
Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine, edited by Donna Bulseco, gathers essays, poems, and reflections from more than sixty healthcare professionals working across the medical system. Doctors, nurses, therapists, EMTs, and patient advocates share moments that unfold in the fragile space between illness and healing, success and loss.
The collection captures the emotional complexity of healthcare work with honesty and compassion. Contributors reflect on difficult patients, personal failures, unexpected humor, and the small victories that sustain people working in demanding clinical environments. The voices are varied in tone and style - conversational, poetic, and sometimes urgent - but they are united by a deep attention to the humanity present in every encounter.
As with many multi-author collections, some pieces resonate more strongly than others, but the cumulative effect is powerful. Together these stories offer readers a meaningful glimpse into the emotional realities of medicine and the resilience required to practice it.
Recommended for readers interested in narrative medicine, healthcare systems, and the human stories that unfold behind the scenes of patient care.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advance copy
Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine, edited by Donna Bulseco, gathers essays, poems, and reflections from more than sixty healthcare professionals working across the medical system. Doctors, nurses, therapists, EMTs, and patient advocates share moments that unfold in the fragile space between illness and healing, success and loss.
The collection captures the emotional complexity of healthcare work with honesty and compassion. Contributors reflect on difficult patients, personal failures, unexpected humor, and the small victories that sustain people working in demanding clinical environments. The voices are varied in tone and style - conversational, poetic, and sometimes urgent - but they are united by a deep attention to the humanity present in every encounter.
As with many multi-author collections, some pieces resonate more strongly than others, but the cumulative effect is powerful. Together these stories offer readers a meaningful glimpse into the emotional realities of medicine and the resilience required to practice it.
Recommended for readers interested in narrative medicine, healthcare systems, and the human stories that unfold behind the scenes of patient care.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advance copy
January 17, 2026
Listen, I know I’m biased to like this because I work in healthcare. BUT I feel that this is a great read for someone who wants to understand the human experience of taking care of another person as a career.
Notable short stories, essays and poems include:
Things I learned from pole dancing that I did not learn from residency
Becoming a doctor
Love, Frank
My favorite patient
Untarnished
Chronic Black Excellence
Ambulance Stories
The Shape of the Shore
Everything
The Boxer
Top Surgery
Notable short stories, essays and poems include:
Things I learned from pole dancing that I did not learn from residency
Becoming a doctor
Love, Frank
My favorite patient
Untarnished
Chronic Black Excellence
Ambulance Stories
The Shape of the Shore
Everything
The Boxer
Top Surgery
December 2, 2025
Healthcare workers sometimes get a reputation (often self-imposed) for being numb to it all - once you've seen everything, nothing surprises you anymore. It's a joke that gets played over and over again in media, meme pages, and even between friends and loved ones (I myself definitely make jokes about being dead inside about once a day to my friends and co-residents) - it's all in good fun, but it's not true at the core, no matter how many times your loved one tells you that they're fine.
In "Where It Hurts", more than 60 doctors, nurses, therapists, EMTs, patient advocates, and other medical professionals offer a window into the space between health and illness, life and death as they share stories of difficult patients, life-changing diagnoses, their own failures, and the successes that make everything worth it. From short stories to essays, from poems to memoirs, healthcare professionals take space to share what they feel - their joys, their triumphs, their grief, their suffering, their guilt, and their forgiveness - to themselves, and to a system which asks much and gives little in return.
This is a must-read for those in healthcare and the friends and family that love and want to understand them. Here is a treasure trove of writing - from the short and sweet to the reflective and voluminous, there's a little something that everyone - even those who insist that they don't feel anything and don't need to reflect on medicine because "it's just a job" - should be able to read and relate to (read "Your First Pediatric Intubation" and tell me that you're not haunted by the dragons of your self-doubt as you weep openly, I dare you).
I think it's hard to admit in medicine and in life - particularly in self-obsessed, self-started, above-it-all America - that the things we see and do or don't do, conversely) affect us. We see crying and feeling and talking about how messed up this all is as a weakness, and while preaching to our patients that self-reflection, taking time, and naming/facing your emotions is important, we are loathe to do it ourselves. I think books - whether fiction or nonfiction - are an easy way to being the path to letting go of some of the hurt, the stoicism, and the poor coping habits healthcare workers in particular try to form for themselves as a shield against the horrible things they see. This book in particular is a short read that those looking for a way in should consider picking up - and maybe call your mom or a therapist too, while you're at it.
In "Where It Hurts", more than 60 doctors, nurses, therapists, EMTs, patient advocates, and other medical professionals offer a window into the space between health and illness, life and death as they share stories of difficult patients, life-changing diagnoses, their own failures, and the successes that make everything worth it. From short stories to essays, from poems to memoirs, healthcare professionals take space to share what they feel - their joys, their triumphs, their grief, their suffering, their guilt, and their forgiveness - to themselves, and to a system which asks much and gives little in return.
This is a must-read for those in healthcare and the friends and family that love and want to understand them. Here is a treasure trove of writing - from the short and sweet to the reflective and voluminous, there's a little something that everyone - even those who insist that they don't feel anything and don't need to reflect on medicine because "it's just a job" - should be able to read and relate to (read "Your First Pediatric Intubation" and tell me that you're not haunted by the dragons of your self-doubt as you weep openly, I dare you).
I think it's hard to admit in medicine and in life - particularly in self-obsessed, self-started, above-it-all America - that the things we see and do or don't do, conversely) affect us. We see crying and feeling and talking about how messed up this all is as a weakness, and while preaching to our patients that self-reflection, taking time, and naming/facing your emotions is important, we are loathe to do it ourselves. I think books - whether fiction or nonfiction - are an easy way to being the path to letting go of some of the hurt, the stoicism, and the poor coping habits healthcare workers in particular try to form for themselves as a shield against the horrible things they see. This book in particular is a short read that those looking for a way in should consider picking up - and maybe call your mom or a therapist too, while you're at it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
(5.00*)
Where It Hurts: Dispatches From the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine edited by Donna Bulseco is a thought-provoking literary collection that brings together more than 60 different essays, short stories, poems, and personal reflections, all of which come from health-care professionals. This is anyone on the frontline of medicine-— including doctors, nurses, therapists, EMTs, patient advocates, and other caretakers who share their personal every day experiences when working in this field.
This collection is not stuck on explaining medicine in clinical terms, but instead focuses on what it feels like facing life & death, grief & joy, fear & readiness, and success & self-doubt. The strength here is how many people’s perspectives we are able to view these hardships through. Some of the writers offer funny and witty works of art, while others are more raw and vulnerable. It truly makes reading this extremely emotional, honest, and relatable.
I do not come from any sort of medical background, but still found myself super engaged and relating to some of the every day situations, emotions, or feelings that were mentioned throughout. I had never even heard of narrative medicine before this, but it is truly admirable to read and allows for more gratitude, compassion, and respect toward frontline workers who go through many feelings and experiences when caring for the ill.
“We were told to be heroes, but heroes are allowed to rest. We were not.”
In that quote, we are transported into the tired mind of a frontline worker. As patients, or even family members of medical personnel, we never know when the last time one of these hard workers got TRUE rest. Within these literary collections, we can now see a bit more into their every day lives and the exhaustion—- mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Overall, there was truly nothing I have to criticize and I enjoyed this book so much; even as someone without any knowledge or experience in the medical field, but I am human and can understand the emotions and hardships discussed throughout. Thank you NetGalley and The Experiment for the ARC!
Where It Hurts: Dispatches From the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine edited by Donna Bulseco is a thought-provoking literary collection that brings together more than 60 different essays, short stories, poems, and personal reflections, all of which come from health-care professionals. This is anyone on the frontline of medicine-— including doctors, nurses, therapists, EMTs, patient advocates, and other caretakers who share their personal every day experiences when working in this field.
This collection is not stuck on explaining medicine in clinical terms, but instead focuses on what it feels like facing life & death, grief & joy, fear & readiness, and success & self-doubt. The strength here is how many people’s perspectives we are able to view these hardships through. Some of the writers offer funny and witty works of art, while others are more raw and vulnerable. It truly makes reading this extremely emotional, honest, and relatable.
I do not come from any sort of medical background, but still found myself super engaged and relating to some of the every day situations, emotions, or feelings that were mentioned throughout. I had never even heard of narrative medicine before this, but it is truly admirable to read and allows for more gratitude, compassion, and respect toward frontline workers who go through many feelings and experiences when caring for the ill.
“We were told to be heroes, but heroes are allowed to rest. We were not.”
In that quote, we are transported into the tired mind of a frontline worker. As patients, or even family members of medical personnel, we never know when the last time one of these hard workers got TRUE rest. Within these literary collections, we can now see a bit more into their every day lives and the exhaustion—- mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Overall, there was truly nothing I have to criticize and I enjoyed this book so much; even as someone without any knowledge or experience in the medical field, but I am human and can understand the emotions and hardships discussed throughout. Thank you NetGalley and The Experiment for the ARC!
March 26, 2026
4,5 excellent collection of vivid patient stories, recollections, doctor's musings; a great introduction to the fruits of the narrative medicine movement; highly recommended; from the preface by Rita Charon;
NARRATIVE PRACTICES ILLUMINATE lives lived amid illness with meaning, with movement, with moments of being. Sometimes hidden, always mysterious, simultaneously understood and misunderstood, illness interrupts the no-illness with an alternative and defining reality. It can barge in violently or sidle in softly, either stealing the before-illness life or accompanying it. Professional caregivers have names for illnesses: acute, chronic, diagnosable, idiopathic, contagious, psychogenic, curable, terminal. Patients and their families come to know the character of the illness: night-stalking, wakefulness-sapping, fleeting, needy, greedy, gruesome. In its wake they become sorrowful, anxious, courageous, impatient, indomitable, adaptable, resigned, triumphant. They can become other persons altogether or become all the more deeply themselves.
NARRATIVE PRACTICES ILLUMINATE lives lived amid illness with meaning, with movement, with moments of being. Sometimes hidden, always mysterious, simultaneously understood and misunderstood, illness interrupts the no-illness with an alternative and defining reality. It can barge in violently or sidle in softly, either stealing the before-illness life or accompanying it. Professional caregivers have names for illnesses: acute, chronic, diagnosable, idiopathic, contagious, psychogenic, curable, terminal. Patients and their families come to know the character of the illness: night-stalking, wakefulness-sapping, fleeting, needy, greedy, gruesome. In its wake they become sorrowful, anxious, courageous, impatient, indomitable, adaptable, resigned, triumphant. They can become other persons altogether or become all the more deeply themselves.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was a fascinating book. It is tales about patients that were encountered in the hospital. It really is a powerful story to hear about these different connections between patients and nurses/doctors. It really goes to show that sometimes you can learn something by seeing the position that the patient might be in.
This book was well written. I was intrigued to read about these different accounts. It seems like some of these patients really left a lasting impact on their nurse/ doctor.
This really goes to show that when working in the medical field, you really never know who is going to walk into the room. You have to be ready to work with people from all walks of life and with various medical conditions.
This book was well written. I was intrigued to read about these different accounts. It seems like some of these patients really left a lasting impact on their nurse/ doctor.
This really goes to show that when working in the medical field, you really never know who is going to walk into the room. You have to be ready to work with people from all walks of life and with various medical conditions.
February 10, 2026
While every job has its challenges, the medical profession is unique in that they are responsible for the life of the person they are treating. The book, “Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine” explores what it means to be on the front line of treating patients by presenting essays, poetry, and short stories.
This isn’t the first anthology of works from medical professionals centering on their chosen vocation that I’ve read. I admit that this form of medical literature isn’t one that I am particularly fond of, mostly because I find that individual contributions tend to be uneven in presentation. I much prefer to read a medical memoir by a single author.
Even though this kind of book isn’t quite my cup of tea, I did enjoy the majority of the works presented here, especially the essays, which I found compelling and well-written.
I would recommend “Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine” to anyone who has an interest in this kind of presentation or is contemplating the profession of medicine. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
4/5 stars
[Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest and objective opinion, which I have given here.]
This isn’t the first anthology of works from medical professionals centering on their chosen vocation that I’ve read. I admit that this form of medical literature isn’t one that I am particularly fond of, mostly because I find that individual contributions tend to be uneven in presentation. I much prefer to read a medical memoir by a single author.
Even though this kind of book isn’t quite my cup of tea, I did enjoy the majority of the works presented here, especially the essays, which I found compelling and well-written.
I would recommend “Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine” to anyone who has an interest in this kind of presentation or is contemplating the profession of medicine. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
4/5 stars
[Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest and objective opinion, which I have given here.]
March 30, 2026
Really enjoyed these stories, a lot I could relate to.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews