Return to The House of God: Medical Resident Education 1978–2008

摘要

Format: Softcover book. nnField of medicine: Internal medicine residency training. nnAudience: Residents, teaching faculty, and other physicians with interest in medicine residency training. nnPurpose: To bring together a volume of critical and reflective essays marking the 30th anniversary of The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital. nnContent: The book is a collection of thoughtful and well-written essays grouped by such themes as historical perspective and the laws of The House of God, as well as women's and literary perspectives. In a grouping called “rereadings,” authors who reread The House of God on its 30th anniversary reflect on how, from a perspective molded by decades of experience and evolution in medicine, their perception of the original novel has changed or remained constant. A final section, comments from the “House of Shem,” offers an analysis of fundamental issues in training that can adversely affect humanism in trainees, advice on dealing with the stress of residency, and suggestions for making the training process more humane. nnHighlights: The collected essays represent a pleasing variety of writing styles, views, and areas of emphasis. The thoughtful historical recount of the best aspects of scholarly training from past eras and consideration of the impact of technology on relationships between doctors and patients offer a perspective on change in residency training that allows the reader to consider where it has been and where it is going. Important and weighty topics, such as injustice, role-modeling, the hidden curriculum in education, and the preservation of humanity in a stressful environment, are skillfully introduced in an engaging manner using themes from the original House of God, just as a good lecturer might use case-based teaching rather than a straight didactic lecture. While the world of medicine has evolved over 30 years, time and experience change physicians as well, and several essays offer interesting personal perspectives. This highly readable book offers a subtle but insightful analysis of how we should adapt residency training in an inevitably changing world to produce humane and skillful physicians. nnRelated reading: Readers can better understand the essays' references to the novel by reading Shem's The House of God (Dell, 1980). nnReviewer: Matthew J. Dolan, MD, Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.