A series of diary entries depicting the life of an NHS junior doctor, in a comedic style.
A great doctor must have a huge heart and a distended aorta through which pumps a vast lake of compassion and human kindness.
This is Going to Hurt is a funny yet emotionally-moving medical memoir. From the first pages we are introduced to the author, Adam Kay, not by name but by his experience. He opens by explaining the total of twelve years he spent training and as a junior doctor, clearly setting the course of the book. The introduction also informs us of the premise of this account and his motivations for sharing these personal stories. It’s clear from the use of puns in the first few pages that Kay is letting us know how his comedic tone will come into play throughout the text. Broken down into chapters, each with a job title, demonstrating Kay’s progression up the occupational ladder, the text keeps its diary format with sections dated to show the continuation of time over Adam’s twelve-year career. Some sections are succinct, simply containing an anecdote or two, whilst others are more detailed, offering a systematic breakdown of a medical case, the patient and their conditions.
Kay shifts between personal life features, mentioning family and friends, with the job, often intertwining them and showing how one impacts upon the other. The book is a full-blend, there are pages of sadness (as one might expect from a hospital setting), happiness and pride in measures, complete with informative medical snippets and a whole host of comedic entertainment.
This is a sensational read for anyone interested in the inner workings of a hospital/the NHS system. The humour adds a light-hearted feel to the emotional strain that the author shares with us, keeping an entertaining read. There are elements of adult humour which wouldn’t be suitable for young readers, however the book as a whole would function as a useful insight for those considering a medical career. Adam Kay adds footnotes explaining any medical terminology that the reader may not be familiar with, making for a more cohesive book.
How did you find the use of comedy impacted upon what was communicated?
This is Going to Hurt has political motivations. Did this affect how you viewed what was being communicated?
A large proportion of the book is in small snippets. How did you find this format? Did the sections leave you wanting more information or were you satisfied with the short anecdotes?
What did you think of Adam Kay’s informal footnotes? Were they easier to understand than straight forward textbook definitions? What effect did this tone have?
‘The patient was the colour of Homer Simpson – from the early series, when the contrast was much more extreme…’. Did the use of oddly specific pop culture references provide a clear description or were they at times a hindrance and require you to look things up?
What social issues does the book mention?
This-is-Going-to-Hurt-Discussion-Questions.pdfSunday, 5 December 2010
A recently married couple arrive in the labour ward, expecting their first baby. After assessment, it appears the mother needs to have a caesarean section. Upon performing the surgery, a problem occurs: the patient has an undiagnosed case of placenta praevia (the placenta inside the uterus is near the cervical opening). There is huge blood loss and the placenta must be delivered then the baby. When the baby is delivered, it is clearly dead and resuscitation efforts are in vain. Adam and other doctors struggle to control the mother’s blood loss. By the time a more experienced surgeon arrives and stops the bleeding it is warned that the mother is unlikely to recover. The mother is moved to intensive care and Adam is deeply upset. Although Adam confirms that his actions weren’t wrong and he wasn’t to blame, he still feels an incredible sense of guilt and as a result undergoes a change in his manner. He writes that there was no more humour in the diaries and that he carried on for six months but was over-cautious, unwilling to let the junior staff learn. He finally terminated his training and now works on sitcom writing. Adam leaves the reader with a thought to consider, to think about the doctors when political matters arise and to remember that sometimes they struggle to deal with their emotions too.
This is Going to Hurt was the second-best selling title in the UK in 2018.
It has won numerous awards including Book of the Year at the National Book Awards.
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