This is a memoir by a current Assistant Professor of Medicine and staff physician. It is about his first year as an intern. McCarthy works at Weill Cornell Medical Center. His literary works have appeared in various publications such as SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, SLATE, THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE and DEADSPIN, where he also writes a column called Medspin. His first book, ODD MAN OUT, was a New York Times bestseller. This book, THE REAL DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU SHORTLY, is a true story will real people. But McCarthy offers a disclaimer that because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountabilty Act (HIPAA), that he has had to change all change anything (names, dates, places and any personal details) that would identify patients and has created a composite of several characters. His work has been vetted for HIPAA purposes. He begins his memoir with a prologue, introducing the reader to this book. This book is arranged in six parts and over 42 chapters to give it a readable flow, much like a novel.
This book was much what I expected. In the past, I had read other memoirs by doctors who wrote about their days in training, in teaching hospitals. This book reads like a novel and is a fast read for its book length. It is fascinating reading that takes you right behind the scenes where doctors learn to practice medicine and relate to their patients. I like reading about the view from the inside and what it feels like to be a doctor and especially, what it feels like when learning doctoring. For there is a learning curve for everything and everyone has to get experience. In the case of doctors in training, it is clinic patients who are the ones who doctors owe their early experiences in training to, as interns and residents "learn on" clinic patients. The author is not a believer. His book is laced with the "F----" word and I simply had to disregard that element of this memoir. This book lets the reader know that doctors, and in this case, doctors in training, have feelings and vulnerabilities behind their slick, efficient, businesslike exteriors. I had spent many years as a clinic patient, being treated by such doctors who I was aware were "learning" on us who used clinics for our primary health care providers. Of course, I always saw their professionalism, not any vulnerability. It still sticks in my mind when I was a patient in a teaching hospital, and a medical student was making rounds with more senior doctors. I was warned, in advance, "You will be seen by doctors in a few minutes and one is a medical student. Nothing against him." Because I had read books of this nature in the past, I was already aware that doctors in training are forced to work insane hours and to override their own bodies' need for rest and sleep. As in other accounts, I read in this book instances where the author was so loopy and drowsy that he could barely function, and yet he was forced to operate and still life and death decision. I wonder if subjecting doctors in training is the best way to run health care, though I understand the idea behind this is to prepare doctors in training for the realities of doctoring and for being on call. I felt badly for one patient, who had no visitors in all his time in the hospital where the author was doing his internship. I found myself in a state of suspense about the one patient, treated by the author as an intern, who had disappeared and I was waiting eagerly to see the outcome but I don't want to give out any spoilers to you. This book shows that this author's trials as an intern are not unique and are, in fact, normal for every intern.
I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in the making of doctors and what it is like to learn on the job for the first year. It is good to see things from a doctor's point of view and to see that, while these are highly-trained and educated human beings, they are still mere mortals. They are not junior gods walking around. We grant doctors tremendous power and life and death responsibilities. They hold our lives in their hands and they know that it is a must that they know their stuff and get it right. This book, like any memoirs by doctors, is an education and in the form of a novel. Plus it is entertaining reading also.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through Blogging For Books, in exchange for my honest review of this book. I was not required to give a positive review of this book.
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