Hi all! This is my first post in this sub and I’m excited to have a relevant question for you: has anyone read and loved a memoir by a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional? Or other kind of nonfiction narrative story about medicine. My baby is in the NICU and we’re spending a lot of time in the hospital and chatting with doctors and nurses and all the amazing people dedicating their lives to saving babies like mine, and I’m inspired to learn more.
Here are some I’ve read and loved:
Early by Sarah DiGregorio
Taking Turns by MK Czerwiec
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Smoke Gets in your Eyes
Call the Midwife
Here are some I’ve read and didn’t totally love:
Radium Girls
Tiny Medicine
by erinaceous-poke
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The Man who thought his wife was a top hat and other stories
This is by a neurologist, Oliver sacks, who talks about his patience with neurological issues and what he has observed. It is different from other heavily medical books because Oliver sacks really tried to understand the patient and where they were coming from and it made him very unique and extremely successful.
I had a health focus in my graduate program and required reading included a book called *The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down* (Anne Fadiman.) It’s about a Hmong family who have a child with a severe seizure disorder, and their experiences interacting with American healthcare.
It was an amazing and informative read from a medical standpoint, learning about the Hmong people and appreciating the challenge of reconciling two belief systems to care for a patient and family in the best way.
“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi
This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay. He’s an ex-doctor and this is hilarious, witty, and wonderfully written. He also narrates the audiobook.
E.R. Nurses by Matt Eversmann, Chris Mooney, and James Patterson. This is non-fiction short stories from E.R. Nurses where “they give a behind-the-scenes look at some of their most memorable moments.”
Check out Atul Gawande. He’s written a few that you might find interesting.
Run, Don’t Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Medical Center by Adele Levine
Ambulance Girl: How I Saved my Life by Becoming an EMT by Jane Stern
Hiroshima Diary by Michihiko Hachiya. He was a doctor who survived and treated smother survivors.
In Sickness by Barrett Rollins was fascinating and horrifying, all at once. It’s about his late wife, who was a famous Harvard oncologist, who hid her advanced breast cancer for over a decade.