A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years As A Medical Student [Paperback]

Fascinating... Klass writes with wit, intelligence, and a great deal of insight. —The New York Times Book Review

Acclaimed pediatrician, journalist, and novelist Perri Klass offers a provocative look at the ups and downs of medical school from those first exams to the day she became a doctor. In a direct, candid style, Klass shares what it is like to be a first-time mother while attending med school; the unique lingo of the med student; how to deal with every bodily fluid imaginable; and the humor and heartbreak of working with patients. With this collection of essays, Klass established herself as a go-to voice for a generation of med students and doctors, with her frank and witty perspective. Klass also brings a proven ability to make the medical world accessible to the lay reader, through her extensive literary and journalistic experience.Introduction

THE PRE-CLINICAL YEARS
The Living-in-Sin Potluck and Other Tales of the First Year of Medical School
A Textbook Pregnancy

THE CLINICAL YEARS
The First Time
Crying in the Hospital
Camels, Zebras, and Fascinomas
Learning the Language
Macho
Tempos
The Scrubbed and the Unscrubbed
Emergency Room
Babytalk
Invasions
007s
Enough to Make You Sick
The Prize in the Cracker Jack Box
Stress and Potato Chips
Ignorance
Who Knows This Patient?

ISSUES
Power Plays
Disasters Past
Nurses
Baby Poop
One in Ten Thousand
India
When Doctors and Patients Speak Different Languages
AIDS
Taking Precautions
Dying
Curing
Assess and Advise
DNR

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