Summary of Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The decision to work in medicine is a version of the email you get in early October asking you to choose your menu options for the work Christmas party. You must be psychologically fit for the job, able to make decisions under a terrifying amount of pressure, and deal with death on a daily basis.

#2 I was a junior doctor in London in 1998. I had spent a quarter of my life at medical school, and it hadn’t remotely prepared me for the Jekyll and Hyde existence of a house officer. During the day, I was a glorified PA.

#3 The night shifts made Dante look like Disney. They were a nightmare that made me regret ever thinking my education was being underutilized. I was a doctor now, and I loved it.

#4 I have a new stethoscope, a new shirt, and a new email address: atom. kay@nhs. net. It’s good to know that no matter what happens today, I could still accuse myself of being the most incompetent person in the hospital.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669354857

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The decision to work in medicine is a version of the email you get in early October asking you to choose your menu options for the work Christmas party. You must be psychologically fit for the job, able to make decisions under a terrifying amount of pressure, and deal with death on a daily basis.

#2

I was a junior doctor in London in 1998. I had spent a quarter of my life at medical school, and it hadn’t remotely prepared me for the Jekyll and Hyde existence of a house officer. During the day, I was a glorified PA.

#3

The night shifts made Dante look like Disney. They were a nightmare that made me regret ever thinking my education was being underutilized. I was a doctor now, and I loved it.

#4

I have a new stethoscope, a new shirt, and a new email address: atom. kay@nhs. net. It’s good to know that no matter what happens today, I could still accuse myself of being the most incompetent person in the hospital.

#5

The patient OM is a seventy-year-old retired heating engineer from Stoke-on-Trent. But tonight, he’s going to be an eccentric German professor with ze unconvinzing agzent. Not just tonight in fact, but this morning, this afternoon and every day of his admission.

#6

The doctors’ mess is the name given to the area where we gather to share stories about patients. We often joke about the ridiculous things patients present with, like itchy teeth or sudden improvement in hearing.

#7

The first death I ever witnessed was that of a patient who had oesophageal varices, which is a complication of liver cirrhosis. It was a sad but necessary end to a horrible situation.

#8

Inpatient Hugo explains to his patient that St. John’s Wort, a common herbal remedy, interacts with the metabolism of warfarin, and her clotting will probably settle down if she stops taking it.

#9

The European Working Time Directive was brought in to provide some legal measure to stop employers working their staff to their bleary-eyed deaths by limiting shifts to a mere forty-eight hours per week.

#10

The truth