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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
one of those books you seek out working in healthcare
Incredible self reflection and insight. A little woo woo for me when it came to spirits and what-not. But I appreciate her perspective.
I was on the fence about this book simply because medical drama doesn’t necessarily interest me, but I also read that the author herself had a rough upbringing and was on the mend in this memoir. I wanted more of the latter, but this book was much more about the former. While the author did weave aspects of her life into this memoir it was more about different cases she experienced. Then she would wrap it up nicely with a little lesson at the end of each chapter. Often times the medical cases would show the problems of America. This book was fine, but not what I wanted to read. It also felt a little pretentious and too political for me.
This is a story about personal growth and healing, beautifully written by an Emergency Room physician who despite her excellent education and opportunities, grew up in a broken dysfunctional household with a drunk abusive father and a battered mother.
During an ER visit as a child, with her brother who had had an altercation with their father, she watches as patients enter the ER broken and suffering and leave mended and whole. that's when she decides on her professional career.
In the book she uses individual patient vignets and interactions from her job to not only highlight the socioeconomic inequities and healthcare inadequacies we as physician's face every day on the job, but also how by helping her patients mend their brokenness, she can find the strength, courage and truth to mend her own. "Medicine.. Is the opportunity to..heal the human body and spirit. By healing ourselves, we heal each other. By healing each other, we heal ourselves.".... "after letting go is forgiveness and after forgiveness, there is faith".
No matter what field of medicine we practice, it'll serve us well to remember our patients are whole people and to help them heal we need to address the 'whole' problem. Unfortunately, the healthcare system as its set up, doesn't acknowledge or reward physicians who take on this approach to spend time on their patients and actually try and heal them. This is where our healthcare delivery system is 'broken'.
As a surgeon myself, i always tell everyone, that on any given day, i do more therapy then surgery. And i probably help my patients more by listening to what troubles them then by using my scalpel.
"Healing ones broken ness is like the Japanese art of Kintsukuroi where one repairs broken pottery by filling the cracks with gold. The choice to highlight the imperfections with precious metals is to acknowledge and pay tribute to the broken vessel which is now considered even more beautiful for its imperfections. "
This book is filled with heartwrenching stories of patients whom society has failed them. And unfortunately some of the criticism i've heard about the book is that it's too preachy and although mentions alot if issues, doesn't delve into how to fix them. Well those people who have that criticisms clearly don't understand the role of the ER physician in the healthcare cycle. ER personnel see people at their worst life moment but for a brief encounter.. their role isn't to fix the problem, but to recognize and diagnose it. And unfortunately as all health care providers we literally have zero power or influence on how to fix the larger societal issues, that send these broken patients our way day in day out.. even though we probably have the most insight in the problems and the possible solutions.
Overall, i found this a great, easy read and probably a requirement for all physicians who struggle with maintaining their humanity while trying to find their role in today's healthcare system.
During an ER visit as a child, with her brother who had had an altercation with their father, she watches as patients enter the ER broken and suffering and leave mended and whole. that's when she decides on her professional career.
In the book she uses individual patient vignets and interactions from her job to not only highlight the socioeconomic inequities and healthcare inadequacies we as physician's face every day on the job, but also how by helping her patients mend their brokenness, she can find the strength, courage and truth to mend her own. "Medicine.. Is the opportunity to..heal the human body and spirit. By healing ourselves, we heal each other. By healing each other, we heal ourselves.".... "after letting go is forgiveness and after forgiveness, there is faith".
No matter what field of medicine we practice, it'll serve us well to remember our patients are whole people and to help them heal we need to address the 'whole' problem. Unfortunately, the healthcare system as its set up, doesn't acknowledge or reward physicians who take on this approach to spend time on their patients and actually try and heal them. This is where our healthcare delivery system is 'broken'.
As a surgeon myself, i always tell everyone, that on any given day, i do more therapy then surgery. And i probably help my patients more by listening to what troubles them then by using my scalpel.
"Healing ones broken ness is like the Japanese art of Kintsukuroi where one repairs broken pottery by filling the cracks with gold. The choice to highlight the imperfections with precious metals is to acknowledge and pay tribute to the broken vessel which is now considered even more beautiful for its imperfections. "
This book is filled with heartwrenching stories of patients whom society has failed them. And unfortunately some of the criticism i've heard about the book is that it's too preachy and although mentions alot if issues, doesn't delve into how to fix them. Well those people who have that criticisms clearly don't understand the role of the ER physician in the healthcare cycle. ER personnel see people at their worst life moment but for a brief encounter.. their role isn't to fix the problem, but to recognize and diagnose it. And unfortunately as all health care providers we literally have zero power or influence on how to fix the larger societal issues, that send these broken patients our way day in day out.. even though we probably have the most insight in the problems and the possible solutions.
Overall, i found this a great, easy read and probably a requirement for all physicians who struggle with maintaining their humanity while trying to find their role in today's healthcare system.
I very much enjoyed Dr. Harper's writing style and appreciated that this memoir was so thoughtfully organized and presented. In addition to providing insights about Dr. Harper's life journey, life of an ER doc, as well as one working in a VA hospital, it organized many life and professional experiences around conceptual frameworks of life lessons. Very well done!!
Such a wonderful book! If you are have a profession in the medical field and view yourself as a healer, this is a wonderful book to read/listen to. Her words resonated with me and would highly recommend this to anyone who may be doubting their trajectory towards a profession regarding 'medicine' of any kind. Her words and true and heart felt. There are moments of heartache but also moments of pure joy. Highly recommend this book!
I’ve decided not to rate this. I wasn’t completely enamored by this story but I really didn’t wanna rate a someones personal story poorly. I had a few great takeaways and leaning more about health care providers is awesome, I just needed more. As someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about medicine, doctors, nurses, etc i felt myself getting a bit lost. I loved learning about some of her patients as well!
emotional
fast-paced
There were aspects of this memoir that I really enjoyed, but I think the writing of this book annoyed me. I liked getting insight into the work of an ER doctor, how much work they do and how emotional it is, but I think the author didn’t do the best job physically connecting the stories of patients to those of her own life and her observations. I feel like all of the connections she made were incredibly valid and insightful, but were choppy within the text. It also felt like the author had edited/perfected her inner dialogue and conversations with others to be correct and concise, but it came across to me as condescending and self-righteous.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced