RCGP publishes "Being a doctor: understanding medical practice"

Being a doctor: understanding medical practice

The Royal College of General Practitioners has just published Being a doctor: understanding medical practice, a book which explores the role of the modern doctor beyond the clinical knowledge – a ‘must-have’ teaching and learning resource for any medical professional, wherever you work.

Being a doctor is much more than simply providing medical care. This book aims to increase the resilience and wellness of doctors, helping the profession to provide better care for patients, through a deep and thoughtful approach to clinical work. It explores areas that can challenge clinicians in all stages of their career:
• the doctor–patient relationship
• adverse outcomes
• the ‘heartsink’ experience
• functional illness.

‘It will seek to help doctors at every career stage bridge the gap between the personal and the impersonal. In elegant easy-to-read prose they [the authors] lead us on a comprehensive journey through general practice’s landmark concepts, explaining and illustrating as they go. Disease, they remind us, can be understood through the methods of science; but to understand the felt experience of illness calls in addition for narrative competence and emotional intelligence on the part of the doctor.’
From Roger Neighbour’s Foreword

Read a free sample chapter, reviews and more here.