From Book News, Inc.
Through stories and point-reinforcing cartoons, an emergency room physician-cum-medical journalist offers medical students "prescriptions" for treating patients (e.g., effective listening, humor). Issues treated include discussing sex, spirituality, system barriers to healthcare, and what constitutes true wellness.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Book Description
A prominent speaker on health care, Dr. Soden has recognized a need for a readable, accessible book that teaches medical students how to interact with patients and deal with difficult medical issues. WHAT EVERY DOCTOR SHOULD KNOW prepares students to confront difficult subjects such as death and dying • medical ethics • dealing with difficult patients • gender issues • aging • and medications and medical errors.

Book Info
Treating medicine as both an art and a science, text thoroughly examines how to relate to patients and deal with difficult medical issues. Provides insights into such difficult topics as death and dying, medical ethics, gender issues, and aging. Discusses the importance of listening and uses vignettes to demonstrate real-life situations. For physicians. Softcover.

From the Publisher
•Begins each chapter with a vignette involving patients and medical students that illustrates real-life situations in hospitals and primary care settings. •Features a novelistic writing style that makes the subject matter come alive for medical students. •Covers all of the material taught in "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" courses in medical school. •Addresses hot topics such as "Listening – the Key to Healing for Doctors," "Difficult Doctors, Difficult Patients," and "Medications and Medical Errors."

About the Author
Kevin Soden, MD, MPH, Emergency and Occupational Medicine Physician who reports regularly for NBC.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Medicine is both an art and a science. Its scientific component -- the diagnosis and management of diseases -- is obviously of crucial importance. However, equally vital is the delicate art of interacting with patients. This one-of-a-kind resource thoroughly examines how to relate to patients and deal with difficult medical issues.

SYNOPSIS

A National Award-Winning Health Reporter and Emergency Physician provides invaluable insights into how to bring care and compassion to the doctor-patient relationship!

Medicine is both an art and a science. Its scientific component--the diagnosis and management of diseases--is obviously of crucial importance. However, equally vital is the delicate art of interacting with patients. This one-of-a-kind resource thoroughly examines how to relate to patients and deal with difficult medical issues.

Author Kevin J. Soden, MD, MPH, FAAFP has worked as an emergency room physician and an occupational medicine specialist for over 25 years. He is also an award-winning medical journalist who appears regularly on NBC News, including the Today Show. His book explores all of the topics covered in ￯﾿ﾽintroduction to Clinical Medicine￯﾿ﾽ courses in medical school￯﾿ﾽand makes the material come alive for both doctors and patients. ￯﾿ﾽ                     Provides insights into subjects such as death and dying, medical ethics, gender issues, and aging. ￯﾿ﾽ                     Discusses topics such as ￯﾿ﾽListening-the Key to Healing for Doctors,￯﾿ﾽ ￯﾿ﾽDifficult Patients￯﾿ﾽ, ￯﾿ﾽHumor and Healing￯﾿ﾽ, and ￯﾿ﾽMedications and Medical Errors.￯﾿ﾽ ￯﾿ﾽ                     Uses vignettes to demonstrate real-life situations that doctors face in hospitals and primary care settings- and how to deal with them. ￯﾿ﾽ                     This ￯﾿ﾽone-of-a-kind￯﾿ﾽ resource thoroughly examines how to relate to patients and deal with difficult medical issues.  

FROM THE CRITICS

J. Patrick O'Leary - MD, FACS The Isidore Cohn, Jr. Professor and Chairman of Surgery Department of Surgery Louisiana State University School of Medicine

The evolution of a naive medical student into a competent, caring physician is a transformation that is unequaled within the entire sphere of education. The vast majority of medical students begin their medical careers with only a rudimentary understanding of what medicine really is, and absolutely no understanding of the metamorphosis that will occur within them as they progress toward their goal of becoming the best possible physician they can be. Although the words are different, the message that these students portray on their medical school applications is always the same. They attest that they are bright, dedicated, hard working, and want to do "good for mankind." Their characterizations of themselves are appropriate, but to attain the tools to do "good for mankind," they must undergo a substantial metamorphosis.

In his book, What Every Doctor and Patient Should Know, Dr. Kevin Joseph Soden reconstructs certain aspects of this dynamic time in a medical student's life in a truly wonderful way as he portrays and then plays out the roles of the Advisor and the Student. Soden draws on a rich personal experience of being a nationally recognized athlete serving, among other things, as the goalie on our Pan American Soccer Team and performing as a truly outstanding collegiate baseball player. He also draws upon his experiences in medical school and beyond. He completed his training in Family Medicine with a focus on emergency medicine. In mid-career he became the Senior Medical Officer for one of the largest international chemical companies [in the US] and then served as a consultant to the NBC "Today Show." He often appears on camera to serve as a resource to the public on various medical problems. Soden has dissected the maturation of the Student￯﾿ﾽfrom a somewhat capricious, opinionated young individual who has already decided that he wishes to go into interventional radiology because "that's where the money is"￯﾿ﾽto a much more sensitive individual who has accepted the mantle of a true physician.

The book is staged in a rather unusual fashion. The story begins with a third-year medical student who is treated in a busy emergency room for an injured ankle and overhears comments about his chosen profession. Later, as he starts on his ward rotations, he has been assigned a mentor. This mentor/mentee relationship is scorned by the student, but to complete the obligations of the first clinical year, he must abide by the rules and participate. The mentor turns out to be a surgeon. Not only that, but a general surgeon who is the head of a large surgical department. The Student expects the surgeon to be opinionated, brusk, and to exhibit all of those prototypical characteristics that medical students have been conditioned to expect of a surgeon. Surprisingly, he finds something entirely different. The relationship that develops between the Student and the Advisor is, at times, strained, but develops in a positive direction as the book progresses. Short vignettes about the Student's experiences begin each chapter as the Student progresses through the clinical year. These literary sketches are then punctuated with commentary from the author that extract the salient points of the Student experience and explore the ethical and moral issues, as well as the subtleties that exist between the student, his patients, and his teachers. Using this methodology, Soden covers an enormous amount of material. He truly touches on the highlights of any student's experience as he or she goes from the pragmatic black-and-white world of physiology, pathology, and biochemistry, to the world of pastels and shades of gray that make the management of an individual patient so difficult and yet so rewarding. Soden masterfully explores the conflicts that every student feels as he or she matures through participation in the clinical experience and approaches the decision of how he or she will spend the rest of one's professional life in medicine. He also shatters many of the myths characterizing physicians in various specialties and sets some wonderful guidelines for the relationship between the mentor and his advisee. Along the way, Soden punctuates his points by identifying individuals who have had an impact on his academic life, sometimes by name and at other times by innuendo.

This is truly a remarkable work and one that should be read with equal fervor by students (for whom it was constructed) and for anyone in a mentoring capacity (for whom it probably carries an even stronger message). The book is an intriguing reading selection for patients so that they can better understand the physicians in whose hands they have placed their most precious commodity, their health, if not their very lives.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Robert E. Rakel

This book should be required reading by every medical student in the country. — Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

James P. O'Leary