Status
Checked out
Due 19-03-2022
Call number
Collections
Publication
Picador (2018), Edition: Main Market Ed.
Description
Welcome to 97-hour weeks. Welcome to life and death decisions. Welcome to a constant tsunami of bodily fluids. Welcome to earning less than the hospital parking meter. Wave goodbye to your friends and relationships. Welcome to the life of a first-year doctor. Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights, and missed weekends, comedian and former medical resident Adam Kay's This Is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the front lines of medicine. Hilarious, horrifying, and heartbreaking by turns, this is everything you wanted to know-and more than a few things, you didn't-about life on and off the hospital ward. And yes, it may leave a scar.
User reviews
LibraryThing member AlisonY
So, after 75 people before me at the library were done with this, I finally got my hands on a copy of this book, which has sold a million plus copies and counting. Was it worth the wait? Well, yes - I thoroughly enjoyed it. Will it be the best book I've ever read. No. But that's fine.
Adam Kay is
Kay is a funny man, and it's a very British comedic account of the NHS at its very worst and best. The anecdotes are hilarious, yet they're tinged with sadness as Kay shines a light on just how severely under pressure our public health service is, with doctors working ridiculously long hours often in states of severe sleep deprivation. At best, it's a system that completely undervalues and exploits its best assets. At worst, it's fatally dangerous. Who would allow a pilot to fly 400 passengers counting his sleep in the last few days on one hand? For some reason that's OK if you're a junior doctor (i.e. below the rank of consultant) and performing life and death procedures. Mental health care and support for those doctors totally burnt out and/or suffering from PTSD? Zero with a capital Z.
This book makes me slightly terrified of the next time I need medical intervention. Firstly, never, ever get seriously ill on 1st August, the day Junior Doctors start work (otherwise affectionately known as Black Wednesday, when hospital death rates spike), or on the days of the year they all rotate en masse to a new department and hospital. I believe the NHS is working on changing this, but still - I wouldn't risk it. Stay at home with your slippers and a glass of whiskey. Secondly, if you have the misfortune to be already on a ward and are going to have something serious like a heart attack, definitely do your best to hang on until morning when everyone comes back on shift and you're not stuck with the single (very) junior doctor looking after all the wards by him/herself.
We're very lucky to have a free public health system, but it is straining at the seams to say the least. I know many people who work within the NHS, and the amount of expenditure wastage is criminal, whilst elsewhere spending on key areas is insufficient. Having read Kay's book, I now feel a little less sore about being left for four hours in stage 2 labour with my first child before I was brought into theatre. The doctor who eventually dragged my blue and floppy baby out was likely 5 hours beyond the official end of their shift and on their umpteenth emergency of the day. Thankfully, all turned out OK, but not everyone is so lucky.
Anyway, I digress. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was hilarious, interesting and shocking in equal measure, and I love how Adam Kay doesn't give a toss about keeping NHS lids firmly on - it's all out there, warts and all.
4 stars - a fun read (although possibly not if you're about to have a baby or go in for a gynae operation in the near future).
Adam Kay is
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now a screen writer in the UK, but for seven years he was an NHS doctor in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology (or, as he and his colleagues call it, 'brats and twats'), working his way up to Registrar (a couple of rungs on the ladder below Consultant). This is Going to Hurt is based on his diaries from those years, following his journey from lowly House Officer to when he hung up his stethoscope for good.Kay is a funny man, and it's a very British comedic account of the NHS at its very worst and best. The anecdotes are hilarious, yet they're tinged with sadness as Kay shines a light on just how severely under pressure our public health service is, with doctors working ridiculously long hours often in states of severe sleep deprivation. At best, it's a system that completely undervalues and exploits its best assets. At worst, it's fatally dangerous. Who would allow a pilot to fly 400 passengers counting his sleep in the last few days on one hand? For some reason that's OK if you're a junior doctor (i.e. below the rank of consultant) and performing life and death procedures. Mental health care and support for those doctors totally burnt out and/or suffering from PTSD? Zero with a capital Z.
This book makes me slightly terrified of the next time I need medical intervention. Firstly, never, ever get seriously ill on 1st August, the day Junior Doctors start work (otherwise affectionately known as Black Wednesday, when hospital death rates spike), or on the days of the year they all rotate en masse to a new department and hospital. I believe the NHS is working on changing this, but still - I wouldn't risk it. Stay at home with your slippers and a glass of whiskey. Secondly, if you have the misfortune to be already on a ward and are going to have something serious like a heart attack, definitely do your best to hang on until morning when everyone comes back on shift and you're not stuck with the single (very) junior doctor looking after all the wards by him/herself.
We're very lucky to have a free public health system, but it is straining at the seams to say the least. I know many people who work within the NHS, and the amount of expenditure wastage is criminal, whilst elsewhere spending on key areas is insufficient. Having read Kay's book, I now feel a little less sore about being left for four hours in stage 2 labour with my first child before I was brought into theatre. The doctor who eventually dragged my blue and floppy baby out was likely 5 hours beyond the official end of their shift and on their umpteenth emergency of the day. Thankfully, all turned out OK, but not everyone is so lucky.
Anyway, I digress. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was hilarious, interesting and shocking in equal measure, and I love how Adam Kay doesn't give a toss about keeping NHS lids firmly on - it's all out there, warts and all.
4 stars - a fun read (although possibly not if you're about to have a baby or go in for a gynae operation in the near future).
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LibraryThing member ASKelmore
Best for: Anyone who likes fairly humorous personal memoirs, especially of the healthcare variety. Probably not best for those currently pregnant, unless they want to read a bunch of vignettes about the various things that might go wrong during labor and delivery (though to be fair, only one such
In a nutshell: Former junior doctor Adam Kay unearthed his diaries from the few years he was a doctor working in the NHS
Worth quoting:
“It’s a surreal feeling being this tired — almost like being in a computer game. You’re there but you’re not there. I suspect my reaction times are currently the same as when I’m about three pints deep. And yet if I turned up at work pissed they’d probably be unimpressed — it’s clearly important my senses are only dulled through exhaustion.”
“ ‘It’s funny — you don’t think of doctors getting ill.’ It’ true, and I think it’s part of something bigger: patients don’t actually think of doctors as being human. It’s why they’re so quick to complain if we make a mistake or if we get cross.”
Why I chose it:
Much like “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine,” there are only so many times I can see a book that looks mildly interesting prominently displayed before I say “FINE. I’LL READ IT. BACK OFF.” Plus, it’s a memoir (check), it’s funny (check), and it involves health (check).
Review:
Adam Kay used to be a doctor. Now he’s a TV writer (UK shows primarily, as far as I can tell) and a talented author, given his debut. This book followed Kay from his first post-medical-school posting through to the day he decides to leave his career. The “Heartbreaking” pull quote on the front cover seems mostly to refer to the incident that leads Kay to quit; the rest of the book is frankly pretty hilarious.
For those not living in the UK, some of the terms can be a bit challenging to get used to, but Kay explains them quickly and easily. As someone who has spent all but a year and a half of her life in the US, I was always confused by the term “junior doctor.” And I think that kept me away from this book for a bit (did I really want to read a bunch of stories about Meredith first year on Grey’s Anatomy? Watching it on TV is one thing, but first years seem to make loads of mistakes, so it seems like it’ll be kind of dark…), but apparently literally everyone except “consultants” are called junior doctors here (UK natives, please correct me if I’m wrong). Consultants are simply the ones who have been around longest and worked their way up the ladder. So a junior doctor could be someone who has been a doctor for many years.
Kay and his editors do a great job of presenting the information. While there are some running themes — namely that free healthcare is amazing and the NHS is fantastic but damn it it needs more support for the providers — and a glimpse or two into Kay’s personal life — his friend Ray, his partner H, and another friend for whom he provides literally life-saving phone calls — the book is split into chapters based on his postings and jobs. It’s chronological, with each section starting with a little overview of things to come, and then a bunch of diary entries that range from a paragraph to a couple pages.
Kay includes footnotes often, which took a few pages to get used to but which I ultimately appreciated greatly. As someone who watches a lot of medical TV (yes, I do still watch Grey’s Anatomy and yes, I still enjoy it), and who has many friends who have given birth, there are terms I’ve heard and kind of understood but didn’t totally get, and many of those are explained here. Kay also has a wicked sense of humor, which caused many a out loud chuckle from me.
The only areas where I took some issue with the writing were his negative comments about Jehovah’s Witnesses (I know, the ‘no blood’ thing must both doctors a great deal, but maybe dial it down a notch) and his seeming annoyance at making accommodations for obese people. Both of those things only came up once, and I didn’t get he sense that they came from places of hate, but they did take me out of the story for a bit.
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vignette ends poorly, and that’s near the end of the book).In a nutshell: Former junior doctor Adam Kay unearthed his diaries from the few years he was a doctor working in the NHS
Worth quoting:
“It’s a surreal feeling being this tired — almost like being in a computer game. You’re there but you’re not there. I suspect my reaction times are currently the same as when I’m about three pints deep. And yet if I turned up at work pissed they’d probably be unimpressed — it’s clearly important my senses are only dulled through exhaustion.”
“ ‘It’s funny — you don’t think of doctors getting ill.’ It’ true, and I think it’s part of something bigger: patients don’t actually think of doctors as being human. It’s why they’re so quick to complain if we make a mistake or if we get cross.”
Why I chose it:
Much like “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine,” there are only so many times I can see a book that looks mildly interesting prominently displayed before I say “FINE. I’LL READ IT. BACK OFF.” Plus, it’s a memoir (check), it’s funny (check), and it involves health (check).
Review:
Adam Kay used to be a doctor. Now he’s a TV writer (UK shows primarily, as far as I can tell) and a talented author, given his debut. This book followed Kay from his first post-medical-school posting through to the day he decides to leave his career. The “Heartbreaking” pull quote on the front cover seems mostly to refer to the incident that leads Kay to quit; the rest of the book is frankly pretty hilarious.
For those not living in the UK, some of the terms can be a bit challenging to get used to, but Kay explains them quickly and easily. As someone who has spent all but a year and a half of her life in the US, I was always confused by the term “junior doctor.” And I think that kept me away from this book for a bit (did I really want to read a bunch of stories about Meredith first year on Grey’s Anatomy? Watching it on TV is one thing, but first years seem to make loads of mistakes, so it seems like it’ll be kind of dark…), but apparently literally everyone except “consultants” are called junior doctors here (UK natives, please correct me if I’m wrong). Consultants are simply the ones who have been around longest and worked their way up the ladder. So a junior doctor could be someone who has been a doctor for many years.
Kay and his editors do a great job of presenting the information. While there are some running themes — namely that free healthcare is amazing and the NHS is fantastic but damn it it needs more support for the providers — and a glimpse or two into Kay’s personal life — his friend Ray, his partner H, and another friend for whom he provides literally life-saving phone calls — the book is split into chapters based on his postings and jobs. It’s chronological, with each section starting with a little overview of things to come, and then a bunch of diary entries that range from a paragraph to a couple pages.
Kay includes footnotes often, which took a few pages to get used to but which I ultimately appreciated greatly. As someone who watches a lot of medical TV (yes, I do still watch Grey’s Anatomy and yes, I still enjoy it), and who has many friends who have given birth, there are terms I’ve heard and kind of understood but didn’t totally get, and many of those are explained here. Kay also has a wicked sense of humor, which caused many a out loud chuckle from me.
The only areas where I took some issue with the writing were his negative comments about Jehovah’s Witnesses (I know, the ‘no blood’ thing must both doctors a great deal, but maybe dial it down a notch) and his seeming annoyance at making accommodations for obese people. Both of those things only came up once, and I didn’t get he sense that they came from places of hate, but they did take me out of the story for a bit.
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LibraryThing member aadyer
A brilliant memoir of life in the frontline in the NHS as a obstetric junior doctor. Humane, compassionate, articulate and wise, this is a collection of vignettes that will make you wonder how we do it. As a fellow NHS worker, I can relate to this call to arms, and share the passion and the respect
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within it. I'm sorry for Adam & all that happened, but this is a description of a man who's life made a difference and continues to do so. I salute it. Show Less
LibraryThing member infjsarah
This was 95% very entertaining and funny and revealing and 5% sad. Adam Kay has an easy style and is often very funny indeed. I laughed out loud more than once at his observations on patients, organisations and other healthcare staff. What is sad is that he left medicine because of a lack of care
He ends the book with a letter to the Health Secretary - which sadly he/she will never read and will only produce mealy mouthed lip service to if they did.
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of its staff which is institutionally baked into the system.He ends the book with a letter to the Health Secretary - which sadly he/she will never read and will only produce mealy mouthed lip service to if they did.
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LibraryThing member Fluffyblue
Very well written book about a (former) junior doctor. Interesting stories, that go from making you laugh out loud to crying. You know that what he has written about the NHS is how it is, frustrating, sometimes hanging on by a thread, but the will of the doctors, nurses and staff holds it together
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despite the management/politics. Show Less
LibraryThing member eesti23
A very funny collection of stories about being a doctor at the NHS with a sad, shocking, and sometimes unbelievable thread running throughout.
LibraryThing member thorold
Adam Kay is currently a comedy scriptwriter and is said to be a familiar face at the Edinburgh Fringe and on television (which I obviously don't watch often enough). Between 2004 and 2010, he was working as a "junior doctor" (which in the UK means anything short of a consultant) in the NHS in the
As the subtitle implies, this book is a summary of his experiences. And, as anyone who knows anything about the NHS would expect, that means not just a juicy selection of the obligatory comic hospital anecdotes ("things I've removed from people's orifices...") but also an outpouring of frustration over the conditions in which most medical professionals in Britain have to work.
Kay tells us the familiar story of ridiculously long working hours (that would be illegal in any other profession), hourly pay rates that work out to be little better than those in fast food outlets, a work culture of chronic understaffing that expects staff to drop everything in their private lives (planned holidays, sleep, important family events, illness, their partners and children) at a moment's notice if the service needs it, that shunts them around arbitrarily from one hospital to another every six months or so (and charges them the same astronomical parking fees as patients if they should be so rash as to come to work by car). And so on.
If you've ever had anything to do with the NHS or the people who work in it you'll know about all that in general terms, but it's salutary to to hear a connected account of the impact that it has on someone's life and their ability to do a proper job. It increases your admiration for the doctors and other medical professionals who somehow do manage to go on working under those conditions. And your astonishment that health ministers can sleep at night...
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South-East of England. As the subtitle implies, this book is a summary of his experiences. And, as anyone who knows anything about the NHS would expect, that means not just a juicy selection of the obligatory comic hospital anecdotes ("things I've removed from people's orifices...") but also an outpouring of frustration over the conditions in which most medical professionals in Britain have to work.
Kay tells us the familiar story of ridiculously long working hours (that would be illegal in any other profession), hourly pay rates that work out to be little better than those in fast food outlets, a work culture of chronic understaffing that expects staff to drop everything in their private lives (planned holidays, sleep, important family events, illness, their partners and children) at a moment's notice if the service needs it, that shunts them around arbitrarily from one hospital to another every six months or so (and charges them the same astronomical parking fees as patients if they should be so rash as to come to work by car). And so on.
If you've ever had anything to do with the NHS or the people who work in it you'll know about all that in general terms, but it's salutary to to hear a connected account of the impact that it has on someone's life and their ability to do a proper job. It increases your admiration for the doctors and other medical professionals who somehow do manage to go on working under those conditions. And your astonishment that health ministers can sleep at night...
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LibraryThing member atreic
Adam Kay writes a Funny Book about life as a junior doctor on an Obs and Gynae ward.
The book is written partly because of the political debate about what junior doctors should be paid, and it's very clear about that agenda - the author thinks they are hugely mistreated and undervalued and over
It's a very Obs & Gynae book. If you don't want to read about vaginas, baby loss, stressful birth stories, and Adam's very traditional young male doctor views on childbirth (elective caesareans are a good choice! Home birth is basically you planning that your baby might die!) then this is definitely not the book for you.
Likewise, if you're worried that doctors are judging your stupid questions, and laughing about you behind your back, this is also not the book for you. Adam is.
But it is a frank and funny look into places most of us don't get to look, and if you can stomach the blood, gore, and tone of voice, it's a good read.
The book is written partly because of the political debate about what junior doctors should be paid, and it's very clear about that agenda - the author thinks they are hugely mistreated and undervalued and over
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worked. I've heard others describe it as 'whiny' book, and I can see why, although given the ridiculous hours, lack of ability to plan leave, and hugely stressful situations junior doctors are placed in, some whining seems appropriate! It's a very Obs & Gynae book. If you don't want to read about vaginas, baby loss, stressful birth stories, and Adam's very traditional young male doctor views on childbirth (elective caesareans are a good choice! Home birth is basically you planning that your baby might die!) then this is definitely not the book for you.
Likewise, if you're worried that doctors are judging your stupid questions, and laughing about you behind your back, this is also not the book for you. Adam is.
But it is a frank and funny look into places most of us don't get to look, and if you can stomach the blood, gore, and tone of voice, it's a good read.
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LibraryThing member DubaiReader
The truth behind working as an NHS doctor.
It has never ceased to amaze me just how badly our junior doctors are treated. Their decisions are often life-saving, yet they are expected to operate with minimal sleep and almost no time off. This is Going to Hurt brought home some of the facts that I had
Adam Kay worked on the labour wards, as an obs/gynae, delivering babies and solving problems associated with difficult births. He was also involved with IVF treatment, which can be available if you have a certain post code, but much more limited if you are unfortunate enough to live down the road, in the catchment area of another hospital.
The book consists of snippets and longer accounts, drawn form his diaries. Many of them are amusing (you wouldn't believe what people put up inside themselves!) and some are sad. This does make the narrative a bit disjointed, but on the whole it worked.
I was listening to the audio book, well read by Adam Kay, himself. I discovered that one of the distinct advantages of the audio was that the footnotes and explanations that are added at the end of the chapters in the book, are narrated as appropriate, either in a lowered voice, or with the word 'footnote' and 'end of footnote'. This saved a lot of the page turning associated with the written version.
Definitely recommended for anyone who is considering entering this profession.
It left me wondering how trainee doctors are treated in other parts of the world??
It has never ceased to amaze me just how badly our junior doctors are treated. Their decisions are often life-saving, yet they are expected to operate with minimal sleep and almost no time off. This is Going to Hurt brought home some of the facts that I had
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long been aware of and put them into context within the life of one doctor. He informs us that the suicide rate amongst women doctors is twice the national average. It's not so much surprising that doctors are leaving the profession, than that we aren't losing many more.Adam Kay worked on the labour wards, as an obs/gynae, delivering babies and solving problems associated with difficult births. He was also involved with IVF treatment, which can be available if you have a certain post code, but much more limited if you are unfortunate enough to live down the road, in the catchment area of another hospital.
The book consists of snippets and longer accounts, drawn form his diaries. Many of them are amusing (you wouldn't believe what people put up inside themselves!) and some are sad. This does make the narrative a bit disjointed, but on the whole it worked.
I was listening to the audio book, well read by Adam Kay, himself. I discovered that one of the distinct advantages of the audio was that the footnotes and explanations that are added at the end of the chapters in the book, are narrated as appropriate, either in a lowered voice, or with the word 'footnote' and 'end of footnote'. This saved a lot of the page turning associated with the written version.
Definitely recommended for anyone who is considering entering this profession.
It left me wondering how trainee doctors are treated in other parts of the world??
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LibraryThing member CarltonC
A relentless, but often humorous, book about the traumatic six years of a UK doctor's life as they progress from House Officer to Senior Registrar.
LibraryThing member breic
Kay writes with wit and heart. Full of complaints, but the humor makes this tolerable. It drags a bit, becoming slightly repetitive, toward the end—and then just ends. But overall it gives us an informative experience.
LibraryThing member runner56
This is really a story of the National Health Service and how it has evolved into an underfunded body unable to cope with ever increasing demands. A workforce dedicated to healing people but overwhelmed by sheer numbers, lack of staff, and long working hours where the slightest mistake can have
A very enjoyable, informative, and often sad read, highly recommended.
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fatal consequences.This is going to hurt is an expose a cry for help by a young doctor Adam Kay trying to educate the public into the inevitable collapse of a beloved institution in the hope that something can be done before it is too late. As with any job that is public facing no day is ever the same and Kay tells his story with great warmth and many funny unbelievable tales...."mild vaginal burns from a patient stuffing a string of lights inside and turning them on (brings new meaning to the phrase..I put the Christmas light up myself!)...."he explains that the last time he was on call on Christmas Day, he chucked on the outfit and beard for the ward round and was halfway through when an elderly patient suddenly went into cardiac arrest, so he dashed over and started CPR while a nurse went to fetch the trolley. Unusually the CPR was successful and the patient gasped back to life to the sight of a six foot Santa liplocked with her, his arms on her chest. I can still hear her scream he said",,,,,,.."Prescribing a morning-after pill in A&E. The patient says,..I slept with three guys last night. Will one pill be enough?".....A very enjoyable, informative, and often sad read, highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member jillrhudy
The ideal holiday gift for anyone in the medical profession. Truly funny and surprisingly insightful, sometimes heartbreaking, this book, in the form of diary entries of a young doctor in the UK from the mid-Oughties to 2010, reveals that the hospital system itself is a disaster, whether a country
I disagree strongly with the author on obstetric care (he is actually pro-elective cesarean and sees natural birth as a form of Russian roulette) but Kay was doing the best he could within the framework he'd been given, and cared about his patients a great deal. I can see how the hospital does not allow time for anything better than strapping birthing women to machines and shoving instruments into them at the first sign of any possible deviation from perfection (a "trace" from the fetal monitor).
The Royal College Gynaecology and Obstetrics website states that this is not recommended practice ten years later, but has the UK reformed labor wards to allow time for changing the mother's position, stopping oxytocin, giving fluids to the mother, etc. etc.? These diary entries make it clear that Kay had no time or energy for any alternatives and once performed 5 cesarean sections in a single evening. I would not have wanted to be #5.
People are bizarre, and Kay encounters the gamut of weird to completely insane patients, and his writing is wonderful. I was only disappointed that he didn't record more of these anecdotes (although the poor fellow needed to sleep sometime). The book contains a very satisfying number of gross-out stories involving bodily fluids. Kay also talks about how his life inside the hospital infringed on his personal life in a manner that was sometimes satisfying and rewarding, but far more often, just the opposite.
Kay is exactly the sort of person we all want to be our doctor (not for my births but for anything else). He's kind, he's compassionate, he's willing to give straight answers. With some exceptions, the hospital system is set up for monstrous narcissists and heartless automatons to succeed at being full-fledged physicians and for good guys like Kay to be chewed up and spat out, and national health care will not fix this problem. This is a good book to laugh along to, but also a book to begin that discussion.
I was given an advanced readers copy of this book and encouraged to submit a review.
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has national health care or not. The hospital system turns trainee doctors into zombies working 90+ hour weeks, and we can all agree that this is dangerous for patients. I disagree strongly with the author on obstetric care (he is actually pro-elective cesarean and sees natural birth as a form of Russian roulette) but Kay was doing the best he could within the framework he'd been given, and cared about his patients a great deal. I can see how the hospital does not allow time for anything better than strapping birthing women to machines and shoving instruments into them at the first sign of any possible deviation from perfection (a "trace" from the fetal monitor).
The Royal College Gynaecology and Obstetrics website states that this is not recommended practice ten years later, but has the UK reformed labor wards to allow time for changing the mother's position, stopping oxytocin, giving fluids to the mother, etc. etc.? These diary entries make it clear that Kay had no time or energy for any alternatives and once performed 5 cesarean sections in a single evening. I would not have wanted to be #5.
People are bizarre, and Kay encounters the gamut of weird to completely insane patients, and his writing is wonderful. I was only disappointed that he didn't record more of these anecdotes (although the poor fellow needed to sleep sometime). The book contains a very satisfying number of gross-out stories involving bodily fluids. Kay also talks about how his life inside the hospital infringed on his personal life in a manner that was sometimes satisfying and rewarding, but far more often, just the opposite.
Kay is exactly the sort of person we all want to be our doctor (not for my births but for anything else). He's kind, he's compassionate, he's willing to give straight answers. With some exceptions, the hospital system is set up for monstrous narcissists and heartless automatons to succeed at being full-fledged physicians and for good guys like Kay to be chewed up and spat out, and national health care will not fix this problem. This is a good book to laugh along to, but also a book to begin that discussion.
I was given an advanced readers copy of this book and encouraged to submit a review.
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LibraryThing member nancyadair
Warning: this book is going to hurt.
Your body will hurt from laughter. Your laughter will irritate those around you and you will be relegated to a separate room, causing hurt feelings. Or--they will be jealous of the fun you are having and that will hurt their feelings.
Your head will hurt
And your heart will hurt learning the sacrifices and ordeals required to become a doctor.
In This Is Going to Hurt, Adam Kay, NHS ob/gyn doctor shares stories from the surgical rooms and hospital beds that are unbelievable. I can't even share some of the stories here. Let's just say that people can do some pretty strange things and eating a hospital spoon is one of the less strange ones in this book. His stories in the delivery room can be pretty funny and pretty gruesome.
Kay is funny and politically incorrect and some of his stories are scandalous.
And yet I 'got' so much of his experience.
There are the high costs of becoming a doctor: expensive schooling, the long hours, being on call, the lack of time for a personal life and family, the meager salary and unpaid overtime, the emotional drain that makes you create a hard shell, the stress, the burn-out. Many professionals can relate to these issues.
It is the heavy burden of being held accountable for life and death decisions that is unique to medical careers. Human error--a slip of the hand or a misdiagnosis in the medical record, the things you can't control--and the doctor goes home feeling they weren't good enough, alert enough, smart enough, lucky enough.
Kay's experience in the British National Health Service could be a warning to Americans considering national health care options. To keep costs down, the NHS caps salaries. Low pay and long hours contribute to staffing problems.
Kay mentions he has to pay for parking. So do patients. Some doctors leave England to work in for-profit systems.
But the UK medical system rating is quite a bit above the US. It's doing something right.
Kay's writing reminded me of David Sedaris. I laughed, I was embarrassed by what I was laughing at, and Kay engaged my mind and my heart.
I received access to a free ebook through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
Your body will hurt from laughter. Your laughter will irritate those around you and you will be relegated to a separate room, causing hurt feelings. Or--they will be jealous of the fun you are having and that will hurt their feelings.
Your head will hurt
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considering all the things that can go wrong in delivering a baby. And your heart will hurt learning the sacrifices and ordeals required to become a doctor.
In This Is Going to Hurt, Adam Kay, NHS ob/gyn doctor shares stories from the surgical rooms and hospital beds that are unbelievable. I can't even share some of the stories here. Let's just say that people can do some pretty strange things and eating a hospital spoon is one of the less strange ones in this book. His stories in the delivery room can be pretty funny and pretty gruesome.
Kay is funny and politically incorrect and some of his stories are scandalous.
And yet I 'got' so much of his experience.
There are the high costs of becoming a doctor: expensive schooling, the long hours, being on call, the lack of time for a personal life and family, the meager salary and unpaid overtime, the emotional drain that makes you create a hard shell, the stress, the burn-out. Many professionals can relate to these issues.
It is the heavy burden of being held accountable for life and death decisions that is unique to medical careers. Human error--a slip of the hand or a misdiagnosis in the medical record, the things you can't control--and the doctor goes home feeling they weren't good enough, alert enough, smart enough, lucky enough.
Kay's experience in the British National Health Service could be a warning to Americans considering national health care options. To keep costs down, the NHS caps salaries. Low pay and long hours contribute to staffing problems.
Kay mentions he has to pay for parking. So do patients. Some doctors leave England to work in for-profit systems.
But the UK medical system rating is quite a bit above the US. It's doing something right.
Kay's writing reminded me of David Sedaris. I laughed, I was embarrassed by what I was laughing at, and Kay engaged my mind and my heart.
I received access to a free ebook through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
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LibraryThing member LARA335
A fast-paced, humorous diary of a junior doctor, that doesn’t shy away from the awfulness of being in a hospital, whether as staff or patient. In an entertaining way, Kay reveals the exhausting hours, responsibilities and lack of emotional support working in a stretched NHS, and the weirdness of
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the general public. Show Less
LibraryThing member adzebill
Fun, hilarious, sobering account of a doctor's life, pivoting into an impassioned plea to save the NHS.
LibraryThing member Iira
Funny but also very touching and sad, a collection of anecdotes painting an exhausting picture of what a junior doctor's daily work is like.
Makes me wonder if working for NSH is completely different from other parts of the world, because the image Adam Kay offers makes it hard to believe anyone
I listened to this as an audiobook, read by the author. This, for me, was a major plus: Kay has an amiable voice and a nice dry way of reading, he is truly the best person to read this.
Makes me wonder if working for NSH is completely different from other parts of the world, because the image Adam Kay offers makes it hard to believe anyone
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would be fooled into doing the work. I listened to this as an audiobook, read by the author. This, for me, was a major plus: Kay has an amiable voice and a nice dry way of reading, he is truly the best person to read this.
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LibraryThing member PDCRead
Adam Kay had come from a family of medics, so becoming a doctor was inevitable. He knew some of what he was going to have to do as a junior doctor, but he didn’t quite realise how much doing that job would take out of him. This book is the diary that he kept of his time working on the maternity
Naturally, he has changed names and significant details to anonymise the events, but what he recounts here dealing with the general public is very very funny at times!
There are sad moments too, which you are naturally going to get in any hospital that is caring for any really ill people.
There are times when he brushes off near-death moments as a seasoned pro and other times when he needs to sit a cry for an hour having not being able to help a particular individual. Just when you think that you have heard it all, then comes another person in with an object inserted literally where the sun doesn’t shine. The funniest one was the candle…
He is an eloquent writer who is not scared to get angry about things when it comes to the NHS. I do feel that the whole system is broken if they are having to push doctors to the point where they can make life-changing mistakes. This is an NHS that has been worn down by successive governments and just at the moment where we have a pandemic hit us it is at its lowest point.
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ward.Naturally, he has changed names and significant details to anonymise the events, but what he recounts here dealing with the general public is very very funny at times!
There are sad moments too, which you are naturally going to get in any hospital that is caring for any really ill people.
There are times when he brushes off near-death moments as a seasoned pro and other times when he needs to sit a cry for an hour having not being able to help a particular individual. Just when you think that you have heard it all, then comes another person in with an object inserted literally where the sun doesn’t shine. The funniest one was the candle…
He is an eloquent writer who is not scared to get angry about things when it comes to the NHS. I do feel that the whole system is broken if they are having to push doctors to the point where they can make life-changing mistakes. This is an NHS that has been worn down by successive governments and just at the moment where we have a pandemic hit us it is at its lowest point.
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LibraryThing member stevesbookstuff
Adam Kay is a bit of a sensation in the UK. He is a comedian, author, script writer and former doctor. This is Going to Hurt, published in 2017, was his first book and was the best-selling nonfiction title of the decade in the UK.
In the book Kay tells the story of his time as a “junior doctor”
I first heard of Adam Kay, and this book, when he and it were talked about by family members on our trip to Australia earlier this year.
By then Kay had already translated the book into the script for an eight-part TV series for the BBC, starring Ben Wishaw. It was in Australia in June that I picked up this book, in a paperback tie-in to the BBC series. The TV series has also been picked up in the US by the AMC+ streaming service, and the book is also available in the US as a paperback tie-in.
The strength of this book is its immediacy. It’s taken from (and laid out in the book as) a series of diary entries that Kay kept between 2004 and 2010 as he moved through the ranks of junior doctor-dom, and into a specialization in obstetrics. While he obscures patient names and changes dates to help protect the privacy of the patients he saw, the tales he relates are true. They really happened, and Kay retells them in a way that is hilarious, disturbing, heartbreaking and intensely page-turning. He delivers an inside look at what it's like to spend eighty or ninety hours a week for months at a time, as a young doctor on rotation.
Kay’s story takes place in NHS hospitals, in a medical system under financial stress due to governmental budget cuts pre-pandemic. In the preface and afterward in the tie-in paperback, he acknowledges the additional stress that COVID has placed on the medical system, and laments what he feels is the lack of support that is driving many doctors and nurses out of practice.
I loved this book. If any of what I’ve said sounds interesting I’d encourage you to seek it out, or at a minimum check out the TV series.
RATING: Five Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
In the book Kay tells the story of his time as a “junior doctor”
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in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). While the US and UK medical systems are different, being a “junior doctor” in the UK seems roughly equivalent to going through residency for medical school grads in the US.I first heard of Adam Kay, and this book, when he and it were talked about by family members on our trip to Australia earlier this year.
By then Kay had already translated the book into the script for an eight-part TV series for the BBC, starring Ben Wishaw. It was in Australia in June that I picked up this book, in a paperback tie-in to the BBC series. The TV series has also been picked up in the US by the AMC+ streaming service, and the book is also available in the US as a paperback tie-in.
The strength of this book is its immediacy. It’s taken from (and laid out in the book as) a series of diary entries that Kay kept between 2004 and 2010 as he moved through the ranks of junior doctor-dom, and into a specialization in obstetrics. While he obscures patient names and changes dates to help protect the privacy of the patients he saw, the tales he relates are true. They really happened, and Kay retells them in a way that is hilarious, disturbing, heartbreaking and intensely page-turning. He delivers an inside look at what it's like to spend eighty or ninety hours a week for months at a time, as a young doctor on rotation.
Kay’s story takes place in NHS hospitals, in a medical system under financial stress due to governmental budget cuts pre-pandemic. In the preface and afterward in the tie-in paperback, he acknowledges the additional stress that COVID has placed on the medical system, and laments what he feels is the lack of support that is driving many doctors and nurses out of practice.
I loved this book. If any of what I’ve said sounds interesting I’d encourage you to seek it out, or at a minimum check out the TV series.
RATING: Five Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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LibraryThing member tuusannuuska
Really impactful. Funny as hell and had me in tears by the end.
LibraryThing member mazda502001
This is a memoir of an NHS junior doctor and has also been made into a TV series and in parts it is heartwarming, funny and a rollercoaster of emotions but I was also left with the feeling that the author is not the most likeable person and I don’t think I would have liked him looking after me
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knowing that there was the possibility that he was going to be very disrespectful about me once he was talking to his colleagues. A quick read but I can’t say that I really liked it. Show Less
LibraryThing member hcnewton
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Doctors must be psychologically fit for the job — able to make decisions under a terrifying amount of pressure, able to break bad news to us anguished relatives, able to deal with death on a daily basis. They must have something that cannot
WHAT'S THIS IS GOING TO HURT ABOUT?
This book covers the years that doctor-turned-comedy writer Adam Kay spent as a junior obstetrics doctor in the NHS. I'm going to gloss over the various titles he had because it's a different system than I'm used to, and I'd botch it—but basically, it's the first few years post-medical school.
Essentially these are excerpts (details tweaked to everyone's privacy) from his diaries from that time showing the day-to-day realities he faced. Told with a comedic bent, sure, but it's just real life—a version of real-life that's more exhausted, more stressed, and covered in more and various bodily fluids than most of us have, sure. It's told very anecdotally, he's not trying to construct a narrative here, just "here's Day X, here's Day X +2," and so on.
He talks about preposterous situations he's put in because of his low-ranking status and/or NHS regulations, he talks about funny situations with patients, ridiculous colleagues, unsympathetic friends, harrowing experiences, and just strange ones. Given his specialty, he deals with expectant mothers, newborns, clueless fathers-to-be, and heartbreak. We get the gamut here.
BONUS MATERIAL
The audiobook I listened to was released with the paperback release and contained some bonus material—a few more diary entries and an afterword. The afterword was essentially a rallying cry for people to support the NHS's existence.
I don't have a dog in this fight—but I found his arguments compelling, and I thought his support of the NHS throughout the book (while freely critiquing aspects of it) added some good and necessary grounding to the humor. The life and death aspect of the book did, too—obviously—but that's common with medical memoirs, this is distinctive (at least in my limited experience)
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THIS IS GOING TO HURT?
Called to the Early Pregnancy Unit by one of the SHOs to confirm a miscarriage at eight weeks—he’s new to scanning and wants a second pair of eyes. I remember that feeling only too well and scamper over. He’s managed the couple’s expectations very well, and clearly made them aware it doesn’t look good—they’re sad and silent as I walk in. What he hasn’t done very well is the ultrasound. He may as well have been scanning the back of his hand or a packet of Quavers. Not only is the baby fine, but so is the other baby that he hadn’t spotted.
I audibly laughed—twice—during the Introduction, so I was instantly on board with this book. The laughs really didn't let up. At times, I wondered if it was a little too jokey, and wished we got more of the narrative about his experience—but then he'd say something else funny and then I decided I didn't care because he's a good comedy writer. Bring on the jokes!
Like the best medical comedies (e.g., M*A*S*H (in all its forms), Scrubs), Kay intersperses the laughs with drama and tragedy—stories of hard-fought success and heartbreaking—even devastating—loss. That augments both ends of the spectrum—while you're chuckling, you're more open to feeling the empathy to appreciate the dramatic. When you're reeling from a hard experience, you need the laughter. If Kay's TV scripts are anything like this, I wish I could see some of his episodes.
Kay handles his own narration here and is great at it, wry detachment mixed with a no-nonsense delivery. He knows it's funny, so he's not trying to push the humor, he just trusts the material and lets it do the heavy lifting.
When the library told me that my hold for this was ready, I didn't remember requesting it—wasn't sure at all why I did. But I gave it a chance, and am so glad I did—it made for a very entertaining 5+ hours. I think you'll find the same if you give it a try.
---
Doctors must be psychologically fit for the job — able to make decisions under a terrifying amount of pressure, able to break bad news to us anguished relatives, able to deal with death on a daily basis. They must have something that cannot
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be memorized and graded; a great doctor must have a huge heart and a distended aorta which pumps a vast lake of compassion and human kindness.WHAT'S THIS IS GOING TO HURT ABOUT?
This book covers the years that doctor-turned-comedy writer Adam Kay spent as a junior obstetrics doctor in the NHS. I'm going to gloss over the various titles he had because it's a different system than I'm used to, and I'd botch it—but basically, it's the first few years post-medical school.
Essentially these are excerpts (details tweaked to everyone's privacy) from his diaries from that time showing the day-to-day realities he faced. Told with a comedic bent, sure, but it's just real life—a version of real-life that's more exhausted, more stressed, and covered in more and various bodily fluids than most of us have, sure. It's told very anecdotally, he's not trying to construct a narrative here, just "here's Day X, here's Day X +2," and so on.
He talks about preposterous situations he's put in because of his low-ranking status and/or NHS regulations, he talks about funny situations with patients, ridiculous colleagues, unsympathetic friends, harrowing experiences, and just strange ones. Given his specialty, he deals with expectant mothers, newborns, clueless fathers-to-be, and heartbreak. We get the gamut here.
BONUS MATERIAL
The audiobook I listened to was released with the paperback release and contained some bonus material—a few more diary entries and an afterword. The afterword was essentially a rallying cry for people to support the NHS's existence.
I don't have a dog in this fight—but I found his arguments compelling, and I thought his support of the NHS throughout the book (while freely critiquing aspects of it) added some good and necessary grounding to the humor. The life and death aspect of the book did, too—obviously—but that's common with medical memoirs, this is distinctive (at least in my limited experience)
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THIS IS GOING TO HURT?
Called to the Early Pregnancy Unit by one of the SHOs to confirm a miscarriage at eight weeks—he’s new to scanning and wants a second pair of eyes. I remember that feeling only too well and scamper over. He’s managed the couple’s expectations very well, and clearly made them aware it doesn’t look good—they’re sad and silent as I walk in. What he hasn’t done very well is the ultrasound. He may as well have been scanning the back of his hand or a packet of Quavers. Not only is the baby fine, but so is the other baby that he hadn’t spotted.
I audibly laughed—twice—during the Introduction, so I was instantly on board with this book. The laughs really didn't let up. At times, I wondered if it was a little too jokey, and wished we got more of the narrative about his experience—but then he'd say something else funny and then I decided I didn't care because he's a good comedy writer. Bring on the jokes!
Like the best medical comedies (e.g., M*A*S*H (in all its forms), Scrubs), Kay intersperses the laughs with drama and tragedy—stories of hard-fought success and heartbreaking—even devastating—loss. That augments both ends of the spectrum—while you're chuckling, you're more open to feeling the empathy to appreciate the dramatic. When you're reeling from a hard experience, you need the laughter. If Kay's TV scripts are anything like this, I wish I could see some of his episodes.
Kay handles his own narration here and is great at it, wry detachment mixed with a no-nonsense delivery. He knows it's funny, so he's not trying to push the humor, he just trusts the material and lets it do the heavy lifting.
When the library told me that my hold for this was ready, I didn't remember requesting it—wasn't sure at all why I did. But I gave it a chance, and am so glad I did—it made for a very entertaining 5+ hours. I think you'll find the same if you give it a try.
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LibraryThing member imyknott
This took me a long time to read for some reason. Whilst I enjoyed and laughed at the anecdotes I couldn't spend too much time on them and became a bit bored with the constant explanations of the various medical bits. Clearly Adam Kay is passionate about the NHS as I am too and I hope those who
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read it understand the tremendous commitment made by all those clinical staff who work for the service. Show Less
LibraryThing member brakketh
Funny, tragic and gives an amazing glimpse into the lives of doctors in the UK.
LibraryThing member kjharcombe
It's a great insight into the NHS and the struggles junior doctors face working on the front line.
Awards
Independent Booksellers' Book Prize (Shortlist — Adult — 2018)
The British Book Industry Awards (Shortlist — 2018)
Books Are My Bag Readers Award (Winner — Readers' Choice — 2017)
Best First Biography Prize (Shortlist — 2017)
TCK Publishing Reader's Choice Award (Non-Fiction — 2017)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2017
Physical description
7.76 inches
ISBN
1509858636 / 9781509858637
Similar in this library
DDC/MDS
| 610.92 |