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goodreads ([personal profile] goodreads) wrote2019-10-22 03:17 pm

This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay

Title: This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
Author: Adam Kay
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 273
Date read: October, 2019

Adam Kay was a junior doctor from 2004 until 2010, before a devastating experience on a ward caused him to reconsider his future. He kept a diary throughout his training, and This Is Going to Hurt intersperses tales from the front line of the NHS with reflections on the current crisis. The result is a first-hand account of life as a junior doctor in all its joy, pain, sacrifice and maddening bureaucracy, and a love letter to those who might at any moment be holding our lives in their hands.


A fun, interesting and poignant book that gave me a newfound appreciation and respect for those who choose to take up medicine. It is NOT an easy life!

This book had a lot going for it - it's told via diary entries, which has always been my jam; it describes the every day life of somebody in the medical profession, which I've been interested in pretty much ever since I first read "Sue Barton: Student Nurse"; and it has a quirky main character, who'd occasionally remind me more than a little of JD of "Scrubs" fame... but unlike the last two, it's non-fiction, which lent a certain weight to the stories.

I really enjoyed it, and am glad to have gotten my hands on it.