Customer Reviews

Little Book of Doctors' Rules I

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This is an invaluable little book , writen by someone with a great knowledge of medicine and of human nature. Warm, witty, pointing the way to attitudes in medical practice that bring back the best in doctor-patient relationships. A must for all medical students !

This is an excellent little book with a lot of wisdom. This would make a great gift for anyone in the medical field, especially students. Many years of experience are distilled into these 425 rules, and there is a lot of humor as well. Not particularly clinically oriented, the book stresses human behavior and patient assessment.

This collection of aphorisms and thought provoking truths is relevant for anyone who cares for patients. I am on the Clinical Faculty at UC Davis Medical School and I make a point of giving a copy of this wonderful volume to those who study with me.

There is nothing new in this book but there is nowhere you can get all this wisdom in one place that is still in print. This book has REALLY essential information for anyone who wants to be a "compleat (sic) physician." This is not a book about how to read a blood gas or treat high blood pressure. It is a book of strategies, tips and observations on dealing with the people called patients and their families. It is in an easy to take format sans heavy analysis. The book will help you help people but it also helps me to remember that everybody has problems with patients and they can't always be solved.

I've been in the practice of medicine for nearly 30 years, and, over those years, have continued to love caring for, and about, patients. I don't know if my medical school was especially prescient, but many of the rules in the book were passed on to me as part of good medical practice, and I continue to hold to them as a practical ideal. In fact, I now give copies of the book to graduating medical students, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants who train under me. They know that these "rules" govern my practice, and I emphasize to them the need to practice similarly as their careers proceed.
Unfortunately, I know all too many colleagues who scoff at any suggestion that their practices might be improved by assimilating many of these ideals, not to mention improving the satisfaction level in their practice of medicine. These days, it all too often seems that people who go into medicine do so for all of the wrong reasons, predominantly surrounding greed and the pursuit of the almighty buck, and their satisfaction levels plummet. I wish I could get through to these people, to tell them that there is a better way, but, by that point, they won't hear of it. They're too busy making all the money they can, and don't realize that gold doesn't buy happiness.
My advice: to doctors, buy it now, and read it before you become disillusioned and jaded; for those who have friends or loved ones entering the medical field, buy the book and give it to them. It just might make them better doctors, and better people.

I received this book when I was in medical school, but didn't really appreciate the collective wisdom in it's pages until I became an attending physician. Although some of the sayings seem obvious at first, sometimes the obvious escapes us. This is a book you'll continue to refer to year after year.