20 Sept 2017

book: trust me, i'm a junior doctor by max pemberton

Before I started medical school, I remember reading this book in an effort to gain more of an insight into the life of a junior doctor. Now that medical school has been and gone (where did the time go?), I decided to give it another little read.


Trust Me, I'm A Junior Doctor is written in an Adrian Mole-style diary by Dr Max Pemberton, a junior doctor in his first year after finishing medical school. His training was very different to how mine will be - he only does one year of foundation whereas I will be doing two. During the book, we follow him through his first year where he does six months of surgery followed by six months of medicine.

The book is written in quite a light-hearted and chatty manner which makes for an easy read. As each chapter represents a month and there is an entry for most days of each month, it means the book can be picked up and put down quite easily. Boiling the kettle for a cup of tea? That's the perfect length of time for one day.

The one gripe I have with the book is how mean the author is about some of his colleagues. I know we meet many different characters in our lives (in all careers, not just medicine) but to me, it's quite distasteful to talk about colleagues in the way he has. Giving one of his seniors the nickname of 'Sad Sack' and calling a nurse in charge 'The Battleaxe' is a little over the top (in my opinion). It seems he's trying to bring some humour into what can be a bit of a dry subject but tried a bit too hard.

Aside from that, there are many humorous parts to it and some very sad parts also. It's made me contemplate keeping my own mini diary for each day I work - not least because it is a good way to unload anything that might keep my awake later that night/day when trying to get to sleep!

It's a good, entertaining read, despite some of my gripes with it. 7/10.

No comments

Post a Comment