This is Going to Hurt

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay is a comedic, tragic, and insightful view into the life of a (junior) doctor. The book is written as a series of diary entries that Adam has kept over the six years he worked in the NHS (UK healthcare system). Since then, he’s become a writer for TV and film. He brings those skills to this book.

Read: 1x | First: January 2023

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The book does a great job of describing how gruelling the hours are, the lack of compassion (and sometimes great shows of it), and the difficulties of life-threatening situations that Adam encounters. But through it all, there is a high level of comedy he inserts into the diary entries.

As there isn’t too much of an overarching point (at least not made implicitly), I’ll leave this review with one of the diary entries that showcases just how funny it can be:

“Monday, 12 February 2007: Prescribing a morning-after pill in A&E. The patient says, ‘I slept with three guys last night. Will one pill be enough?’ “