Proper Doctoring - Couverture souple

Mendel, D.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 354013686X ISBN 13 : 9783540136866

Editeur : Springer, 2013

Synopsis

There are many textbooks which give detailed descriptions of the causes, clinical features and treatment of disease. There are a number of books devoted to clinical methodo- logy which tell the student the questions which he must ask and describe the physical signs that he should seek. The authors of these books rarely devote more than a page or two to a job description and advice on how to acquire clinical skills. Although a sound knowledge of the facts is essential, a good doctor differs from a bad doctor more by his attitude and craftsmanship than by his knowledge. These important matters receive scant attention in the textbooks because the authors regard them as part of the spoken tradition which is taught at the bedside or in the clinics and is absorbed by watching clinicians while they are dealing with patients. The image of the doctor who greets patients with his pen poised over a prescription pad, and the calls for holistic medicine, imply that a number of students do not pick up the relevant attitudes and skills on the way. That this feeling is shared by the profession itself is suggested by the forma- tion of a society to promote the treatment of the whole patient, and another for the promotion of humanism in cardiology. Good doctors have been treating the whole patient humanely since the profession was founded, and I find it shocking that it is thought that such societies are necessary.

A propos du livre

Biographie de l'auteur

David Mendel (1922–2007) was born in East London. He was a poor student and applied to medical school on a whim after discovering that he wasn't suited for his father's millinery business. He contracted tuberculosis while at his first hospital job and was confined to bed for six months, after which he spent time as a ship's doctor. In 1960 he was hired by St. Thomas's Hospital, London, where he would stay for more than two decades, working as a senior lecturer and a specialist in cardiology. During these years he wrote the well-regarded textbook The Practice of Cardiac Catheterisation and acquired a reputation as a popular and lively teacher. Mendel retired from medicine in 1986, moving to a cottage in Kent with his wife, Margaret, and earning a degree in Italian from the University of Kent. From then until his death he occupied himself playing the flute, building furniture, and publishing essays on Italian subjects, particularly about his friend, the chemist and writer Primo Levi.

Jerome Groopman is the Dina and Raphael Recanati Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of Experimental Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He has published more than 180 scientific articles, is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and most recently, the coauthor of Your Medical Mind.

Présentation de l'éditeur

 “People come to us for help. They come for health and strength.” With these simple words David Mendel begins Proper Doctoring, a book about what it means (and takes) to be a good doctor, and for that reason very much a book for patients as well as doctors—which is to say a book for everyone. In crisp, clear prose, he introduces readers to the craft of medicine and shows how to practice it. Discussing matters ranging from the most basic—how doctors should dress and how they should speak to patients—to the taking of medical histories, the etiquette of examinations, and the difficulties of diagnosis, Mendel moves on to consider how the doctor can best serve patients who suffer from prolonged illness or face death. Throughout he keeps in sight the fundamental moral fact that the relationship between doctor and patient is a human one before it is a professional one. As he writes with characteristic concision, “The trained and experienced doctor puts himself, or his nearest and dearest, in the patient’s position, and asks himself what he would do if he were advising himself or his family. No other advice is acceptable; no other is justifiable.”

Proper Doctoring is a book that is admirably direct, as well as wise, witty, deeply humane, and, frankly, indispensable.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Springer
• Date d'édition: 2013
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 354013686X
• ISBN 13: 9783540136866
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 196
• Coordonnées du fabricant: ProductSafety@springernature.com; ProductSafety@springernature.com; ; Poststr. 9; Darmstadt; 64293; Allemagne