The husband was dicking around on a birthing ball and fell off, cracking his skull on the ground. Just when I was thinking it had been a while since the last episode of ‘unexpected objects stuck in orifices’, today a patient in her twenties presents to A&E unable to retrieve a bottle she’d put up there.Ĭrash call to a Labour ward room. To hilarious accounts of his day-to-day work: I was rather hoping Kay Syndrome might be a more glamorous discovery than someone shitting themselves inside out during induction of labour, but perhaps it’s a price worth paying for immortalisation in the textbooks. The reason this book is so brilliant – aside from the wonderfully juicy insights into the life of a doctor – is Adam’s perfectly pitched comedic writing style. They sacrifice relationships, friendships, uproot their lives every year when they have to move hospitals and frequently work to the point of exhaustion, all to help people and save lives. That may seem like a contradiction, and yes, it is, but what it really is, is a testament to the bloody amazing people who, despite those conditions, dedicate so much of their life to being doctors. Opening sentence: In 2010, after six years of training and a further six years on the wards, I resigned from my job as a junior doctor. Adam Kay honestly and succinctly lays bare the harsh realities of being a junior doctor in the NHS: ‘ the hours are terrible, the pay is terrible, the conditions are terrible you’re underappreciated, unsupported, disrespected and frequently physically endangered. Let me start by saying This is Going to Hurt is hands-down one of the best memoirs I’ve read.

Books like this is going to hurt