As a student doctor, there are a few well-loved texts that are a little different from our required reading. Sometimes, it’s these books, TV shows or films that inspired us to consider medicine as a career in the first place. Grey’s Anatomy and Call the Midwife, medical dramas with their fingers firmly on the pulse, are common reference points. Call the Midwife has brought complex health and social issues to life, from vaccination programmes to illegal abortions. Grey’s Anatomy depicts the drama of the operating theatre (not least when a patient is brought in with a bomb inside them). And my copy of Your Life in My Hands by Dr Rachel Clarke is dogeared from being passed around so many times.
But Adam Kay’s grim, darkly funny memoir about life as a junior doctor, This is Going to Hurt, stands out. I read it when I applied to study medicine, then again in my first year, and then again in November 2021 after my first placement. It was recommended by a friend as a way to get a feel for working in the NHS, and I was left shocked but intrigued. It felt like a friend trying to tell you how horrible and hard their job is, all the while doing their best not to put you off. So when the TV adaptation was released, I knew I’d be hooked.
