Letters to a Young Doctor: Exploring and Surviving a Career in Medicine

by Hilali Noordeen

Part manual and part manifesto, Letters to a Young Doctor is a timely and passionate book to help future medical students and young doctors navigate and survive medical education and practice, presenting an unvarnished depiction of the profession as it is today and the challenges it faces. ‘A brilliant and impassioned cry from the heart of the current state of medical education and practice, from the top of the profession. That it is also spiritual, wise and funny makes this book something special.’ Jesse Norman MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, author of The Big Society ‘A delightful and witty account of the life of a successful surgeon, whose own warmth and empathy has clearly defi ned his medical practice. His plea to revisit reforms in our health service – which rely on command and control and which are destroying the values of care and compassion – is timely and powerful. Letters to a Young Doctor is both a lively guide for young doctors and also a serious message to our society.’ Baroness Helena Kennedy QC ‘At a time when, more than ever, we are focused on the NHS, this is a reminder of the compassionate care that needs to be at its heart. Part polemic, part guide to a medical career and part memoir, Letters to a Young Doctor is also very funny and written with passion, elan and fl uency. It should be prescribed reading for any budding doctor, not to mention their parents.’ Rachel Kelly, writer, mental health advocate and author of Sunday Times bestseller Black How Words Can My Journey Through Depression

Genres: Medicine

133 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 25, 2021

Reviews

[Kloky · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it started okay even giving some pretty good advice to dealing with NHS managerial system (something I personally dont care about as a swedish medstudent) it turns into this religious rant about how secularism ruined everything especially medicine. The solution is to find God and through that beauty and purpose of life, and that's when everything will be solved.

I will preface that i listened to this as an audiobbok while doing my runs, so I admit i dont dedicate my full focus on the content. However, I got really iritatated listening to a cermon when I thought I was about to hear some insightful lessons of being a modern doctor. The irony of comparing the spiritual superiority of the third world but not being able to connect that to the lacking health care system is that there is borderline infuriating. NHS secular system, even with its flaws, is so much better to the religious counterparts given. If it was one chapter based on personal struggles, I wouldn't be so frustrated, but he is propagating that everyone, especially all physicians to become believers of some kind which is absurd concidering the years of abuse, regression, hate and opression that propagate organised religion. Comparing every non believer to drug addicts in need of the AA 12 steps programs.

I'm not saying that the modern world hasn't brought its problems, that there arnet issues in the modern health care industry but lamenting over the past skipping all the bad stuff and then proposing religion to be the answer is the intellectual dishonesty I didn't expect of a doctor.

[Lucille Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

UK centric commentary on the practice of medicine and becoming a doctor. Very spiritual in a multi faith approach.