Good Fiction Prior to Internship

[Sevo]

Looking for some interesting medical fiction to read to pass the time before the Match results come out.

So far, I've read:

"Intern" by "Doctor X" - the 1965 bestseller, later acknowledged by physician-author Alan Nourse as about his brutal transitional internship at Virginia Mason

"Intern Blues" by Robert Marion -- aka the pediatric version of "Intern" -- detailing the lives of three whiny peds interns at the various Albert Einstein NYC affiliates.

I've heard "Learning to Play God" by Marion is also pretty good.

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[Derek]

A few years ago I read "The Year of the Intern". It was a pretty good depiction of one interns experiences.

 

[ckent]

I'm pretty sure that the book is called "Second opinions", it's written by a Harvard Med Professor about his own experiences in practice. It was actually what "Gideon's Crossing", the TV show on ABC a while back, was based on. They actually took some stories directly out of that book, but I never saw them give the book any credit. It's really good though, has a lot of good stories about second guessing people.

 

[efs]

Try:
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
House of God by Samuel Shem (this one is a classic)
Mount Misery by Samuel Shem (not as good as the first, but worth reading)
Five Patients by Michael Crieghton
The year of the Intern is good too

Lots of other good ones, but those are the first that come to mind.

 

[Cuts]

"When the air hits your brain -- Tales of Neurosurgery" by Dr. Frank Vertosick... not fiction, but it's a really awesome book. Almost makes me want to pursue Neurosurgery... ALMOST lol.

"First Do No Harm" - forgot by who

"Health Against Wealth" - not fiction, but good and informative.

 

[Doctora Foxy]

Which one is the classic book that all MD students read about the horrors of 3rd/4th year? Have any of you read it and is it good?

 

[mpp]

Check out Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande. Scheduled to be published in May 2002. Some excerpts were printed in the New Yorker a few months back.

 

[ckent]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Doctora Foxy:
•Which one is the classic book that all MD students read about the horrors of 3rd/4th year? Have any of you read it and is it good?•••••Try "White Coat: Becoming a Doctor at Harvard Medical school" By Ellen Rothman, it's a pretty good book. She recounts her experiences through all 4 years, she seems pretty disenchanted by the end of it all though.

 

[Doctora Foxy]

but is that the famous one that I heard is almost required reading for med students?

And I want a realistic reading, not someone complaining and showing only the negatives (like the Tufts Diary online, I hated reading that)

 

[ckent]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Doctora Foxy:
•but is that the famous one that I heard is almost required reading for med students?

And I want a realistic reading, not someone complaining and showing only the negatives (like the Tufts Diary online, I hated reading that)•••••I would guess that the "famous one" that you are referring to is called "The House of God". I've never read it, but I have heard a lot of good things about it. Supposedly, it's like Scrubs on NBC. I think that it's about someone's internship year.

 

[haemophilus]

I would be hard pressed to believe that 'The House of God' by Samuel Shen would be required reading for med students. I've personally read it and enjoyed it, but the word to describe it is often 'sacrilegious. It's a novel on internship at a 'prestigious hospital' and is a disturbing yet fascinating portrayal of the helplessness and disillusionment of an intern. It is also quite racy at times.

To give you a taste of the book, here are the Laws of the House of God:

1. GOMERs don't die
2. GOMERs go to ground
3. At a cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse
4. The patient is the one with the disease
5. Placement comes first
6. There's no body cavity that cannot be reached with a #14 needle and a good strong arm
7. Age + BUN = Lasix dose
8. They can always hurt you more
9. The only good admission is a dead admission
10. If you don't take a temperature, you can't find a fever
11. Show me a BMS who only triples my work and I will kiss his feet (BMS = Best Medical Student)
12. If the radiology resident and the BMS both see a lesion on the chest X-ray, there can be no lesion there
13. The delivery of medical care is to do as much nothing as possible

 

[Sevo]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Doctora Foxy:
•Which one is the classic book that all MD students read about the horrors of 3rd/4th year? Have any of you read it and is it good?•••••Probably White Coat or Learning to Play God. Both are supposedly good med school books.

Forgot about When the Air Hits Your Brain -- great book! Never forgot about Horner's Syndrome again after reading it.

 

[NuMD97]

One of my all time favorites: "Gentle Vengeance" by Charles LeBaron about the first year at Harvard Medical School. It's out of print, but can be purchased for a few dollars at amazon.com. Written with tongue in proverbial cheek, it's written from an "outsider's" perspective, about how the author got into medical school in the most unorthodox of ways. Absolutely loved it. Read it especially if you've taken a different road to get into medical school after doing "other things". You won't regret it.

 

[PainMan]

haemophilus left out the most important message of the book which is learning to TURF! It is really not that great of a book. The charactors are few and simple. I read it because of all the references to it....

 

[wvshootr]

Well, I have always hated fiction, and reading for that matter....thank god for all the pics in Robbin's Pathology and Dubin's EKG. Anyway...I read "House of God" and just couldn't put it down. Even though it was written in the late 70s, pretty much everything still applies. I had never heard of it, until my advisor during my 2nd year recommended it. However, I will warn ya, if you haven't done your clinical years, you will shudder at the treatment of the patients and all that stuff. But read it again after your third year, and you will see just how true it all is.

Another good short book (for those with ADD like me :wink: ) is "Kill as Few Patients as Possible". It's just like 100pages and has a lot of short little essays. Very enjoyable and also useful.

 

[dbiddy]

I hate to be a stick-in-the-mud, but I have never read any of these books and have no desire to read any of them. The way I see it..........this is our lives, we live medicine the majority of our waking days so why spend our free time reading about it. I'd rather do something fun........or if I am feeling motivated study. I don't know........that's just me?

 

[efs]

It is always good to see an alternative perspective.

I thought House of God was a decent book. It is thought provoking. I would not take everything in it to be truth, but it is often referenced and does have some good points to make. Consider it as another small part of your medical education. Your education should not simply be what you can absorb through attending lectures and reading textbooks. It is much more complex than that. Learn how to interact with others around you. To some extent this means that you need to be open to other points of view. Reading can help here.

theother one that I enjoyed was Michael Creighton's Five Patients. It was written many years ago when he went through medical school and brings up many relevant points. What is more interesting is that the points he addresses those many years ago are still relevant today. Another good read, and you might consider it another small point in your education.