Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor

by Perri Klass

Overview

If you've ever gotten wrapped up in the arcana of "E.R." or "House," or been absorbed by a piece in The New Yorker by Gawande, Groopman, or Nuland, or sat on that exam table wondering what's really going on in your doctor's head, then this book is for you. Expertise versus commonsense practice; moral judgments on young patients or their parents; asking tough questions; death and physician-assisted suicide; daily life with a doctor's job (yours or a family member's); doctors as patients-Klass addresses the primary issues in the life of any doctor and, by extension, the lives of those for whom they care. Perri Klass, M.D., is a writer, teacher, pediatrician, and mentor. In her frequent contributions to the New York Times, she takes on a host of issues particular to the life of a doctor-secrecy, ethics, fear, grief, and competition-with a warmth and wit her readers have come to love. Now, in the newest addition to Basic's Art of Mentoring series, she offers her guidance, and her stories, to a new generation of doctors and readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465037780
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/26/2008
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Perri Klass, M.D., is a practicing pediatrician, an acclaimed author, and a prize-winning journalist. Her recent books include Every Mother Is a Daughter with Sheila Solomon Klass, and Quirky Kids: Understanding and Helping Your Child Who Doesn't Fit In with Eileen Costello, M.D. She is the Medical Director of the national literacy program Reach Out and Read, dedicated to promoting literacy as part of pediatric primary care. She is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University, and lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
Deciding to Be a Doctor-Choosing and Being Chosen, and Making Your Mother Proud     1
Asking Questions, Crossing Borders     23
Physical Findings: Appreciating a Mass     48
The State of Residency     74
Bugs, Drugs, and Data     104
Against Medical Advice     128
Making Mistakes     149
Knowing Stories and Keeping Secrets     172
Death and Dying and Presiding     189
Work and Life     205
Acknowledgments     225
Selected References     229

Editorial Reviews

"Library Journal"
"Pediatrician and journalist Klass delivers a vivid account of her experiences and lessons learned during medical school, residency, and as an attending physician... Her enthusiasm for the profession and ability to share her years of practice make this an excellent read for future medical students, medical professionals, and anyone interested in medicine."

"New England Journal of Medicine"
"The literary treatment that Klass chose as the vehicle for her thoughts carries with it the kindness and fairness of centuries of wisdom seasoned with doubt and of age yearning to be of use to youth. Her book animates the doctor's plight and gift: no answers, but always questions."

"Washington Post"
"Klass tackles some of the most timely and controversial dilemmas that will confront newly minted physicians"


"Perri Klass is honest about her own neuroses, thoughtful about conflict and harmony in her own profession, furious at the arrogant frauds she has been made to work with, and not afraid to tell us everything she has seen."

"Unflinching honesty.... Perri Klass invites us to experience medicine's initiation rites, laws, and inner workings from the border of first-year medical school to the weary heart of the realm."

From the Publisher

When Klass's son decides to follow in her footsteps and apply to medical school, she writes a series of letters, advising him and every other young doctor on the intricacies of the field they're about to enter. But even though her subject is medicine, pediatrician and noted author Klass (The Mystery of Breathing) effortlessly transcends all professions, ages and interests, appealing to anyone who has ever stepped inside a hospital or watched one of television's ever-popular medical dramas. She guides readers gently through the medical field, behind closed doors into the staff rooms and into the sharp minds of doctors, giving readers a glimpse of what it is like to work 100-plus hours a week, the intensity of interning and the overwhelming responsibility of getting it right, and what can be done when a mistake happens (as it inevitably will). Her advice is moral as well as practical: she speaks of the need for feeling a sense of common humanity with the homeless alcoholic who arrives at the emergency room. Klass concludes, "I write about medicine because people want to read about medicine... a world that many people see as closed, inaccessible, and full of fascinating life-and-death secrets... of characters and stories and plots" (June)

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