Short White Coat: Lessons From Patients On Becoming A Doctor

Short White Coat: Lessons from Patients on Becoming a Doctor

Most people will, at some point or another, either find themselves dressed in a tiny hospital gown or staring at someone else dressed in a tiny hospital gown. Whether from the perspective of a patient, a family member, or a medical professional, we all have a significant stake in the process of medical education. While numerous memoirs recount physicians' grueling experiences during residency, few focus on the even more formative portion of medical training: the third year of medical school-the clinical year. Short White Coat: Lessons from Patients on Becoming a Doctor is the disarmingly honest, yet endearing and sometimes funny account of a medical student's humbling initiation into the world of patient care.Written during his third year of medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, James Feinstein's Short White Coat uses a series of engaging narrative essays to illustrate the universal life lessons that his very first patients teach him. He gracefully examines some of the most common issues and feelings that medical students encounter while learning how to meet, talk with, touch, and care for their patients. Along the way, he learns from his own mistakes before discovering the answer to the question that plagues every medical student: "Do I have what it takes to become a doctor?"ReviewMemoirs are almost a dime a dozen...Not so [with] "Short White Coat," by Dr. James A. Feinstein, about his third year as a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania. Medicine remains a universally fascinating topic...The work is lively, honest, alternately funny and sad. -Reviewed by Deborah Straw for US Review of Books"Short White Coat" is a collection of wonderfully heart-warming stories about real life experiences of a third year medical student. Ranging from frankly scary to truly uplifting, each of the stories teaches a lesson about listening, learning and growing. -Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views2010 Eric Hoffer Award (Memoir Category), 1st Runner-UpAbout the AuthorJames A. Feinstein, MD survived medical school and is now an attending physician at the Children's Hospital Colorado. After graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, he earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His short stories have been published in multiple journals.