White Coat: Becoming A Doctor At Harvard Medical School [Hardcover]

Ellen L. Rothman (Author), Ellen Rothman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0688153135 | ISBN-13: 978-0688153137 | Publication Date: March 17, 1999 | Edition: 1

In White Coat, Ellen Rothman offers a vivid account of her four years at one of the best medical schools in the country, and opens the infamously closed door between patient and doctor. Touching on today's most important medical issues -- such as HMOs, AIDS, and assisted suicide -- the author navigates her way through despair, exhilaration, and a lot of exhaustion in Harvard's classrooms and Boston's hospitals to earn the indisputable title to which we entrust our lives.

With a thoughtful, candid voice, Rothman writes about a wide range of experiences -- from a dream about holding the hand of a cadaver she had dissected to the acute embarrassment she felt when asking patients about their sexual histories. She shares her horror at treating a patient with a flesh-eating skin infection, the anxiety of being "pimped" by doctors for information (when doctors quiz students on anatomy and medicine), as well as the ultimate reward of making the transformation and of earning a doctor's white coat.

For readers of Perri Klass, Richard Selzer, and the millions of fans of ER, White Coat is a fascinating account of one woman's journey through school and into the high-stakes drama of the medical world.

In White Coat, Ellen Rothman offers a vivid account of her four years at one of the best medical schools in the country, and opens the infamously closed door between patient and doctor. Touching on today's most important medical issues -- such as HMOs, AIDS, and assisted suicide -- the author navigates her way through despair, exhilaration, and a lot of exhaustion in Harvard's classrooms and Boston's hospitals to earn the indisputable title to which we entrust our lives.

With a thoughtful, candid voice, Rothman writes about a wide range of experiences -- from a dream about holding the hand of a cadaver she had dissected to the acute embarrassment she felt when asking patients about their sexual histories. She shares her horror at treating a patient with a flesh-eating skin infection, the anxiety of being "pimped" by doctors for information (when doctors quiz students on anatomy and medicine), as well as the ultimate reward of making the transformation and of earning a doctor's white coat.

For readers of Perri Klass, Richard Selzer, and the millions of fans of ER, White Coat is a fascinating account of one woman's journey through school and into the high-stakes drama of the medical world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Books about the education of physicians are so plentiful they practically constitute their own subgenre. For starters, there's Melvin Konner's Becoming a Doctor, A Not Entirely Benign Procedure by Perri Klass, and several books by Robert Marion (including Learning to Play God, Rotations, and The Intern Blues). Joining the field is Ellen Lerner Rothman with a memoir of her years at Harvard Medical School. It's a workman-like account of learning the art and science of medicine in the era of HMOs, in which paperwork seems to have replaced healing as the main product of hospital bureaucracy. Rothman wrestles with the dilemmas of compassion and objectivity as she encounters patients, learns procedures, and prepares to don the white coat that symbolizes physician competence in a world of backless patient gowns.

Of particular interest are Rothman's accounts of the rabid fan base among medical students for a certain top-rated medical TV drama; they study its jargon almost as exhaustively as they review the physiology of the heart. "It was just like on ER," she notes following an encounter with a traumatic cardiac arrest that ended with the patient's death. The lines between pop culture and science are ever blurred. --Patrizia DiLucchio

From Publishers Weekly

When Rothman donned her fresh white coat on her first day of orientation at Harvard Medical School, she assumed a complex new identity. To patients, the white coat meant medical authority, whereas to Rothman it represented "a power that I was not ready to accept." Written with admirable candor and insight, her account of how she grew into her white coat during the four-year program will interest the mix of general and professional readers who enjoyed Perri Klass's similar memoir, Not an Entirely Benign Procedure. Rothman, who is now a resident in the combined pediatrics program at Boston Children's Hospital and Boston City Hospital, begins with first-year anxieties associated with classes and working on cadavers. She honestly confronts the competitiveness among her classmates and the difficulty of balancing a demanding schedule with personal relationships. She explores the excitement and glamour of being a doctor while acknowledging the awesome responsibility it entails: "I must be above human fallacy.... My mistakes and failures could have catastrophic consequences." She also writes with great sensitivity about the first patient she touches, the obnoxious patient she feels guilty for disliking, the pain of having to tell a man he has cancer and the stress and humiliation of being grilled by senior doctors. Anecdotes about herself and her classmates (they are addicted to the TV series E.R.) also add flavor to her account. Rothman ends her book admitting that, although she is now comfortable in her white coat, "I will never finish growing into my role as doctor and caregiver." Agent, Kip Kotzen.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (March 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688153135
• ISBN-13: 978-0688153137
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,235,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disjointed and Random, December 26, 2002

By 

David C. Zartman (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Coat: Becoming A Doctor At Harvard Medical School (Paperback)

I hate to be harsh on the author, but this book was WAY too disjointed in its writing. First, I expected a detailed account of what it is like to be trained as a doctor at one of America's premier medical schools. Books such as this interest me, as I may never train to be a doctor (likewise, the book "Boot" is a great tome that goes through Marine Corp boot camp from beginning to end.) Instead, in "White Coat" there is basic and quick descriptions of what Harvard Medical School is like, followed suddenly by a random paragraph about dating a guy, or watching ER.

Her entire first year--what I would imagine would be an amazing experience of first-time medical learning and wonders-- covers less than 36 pages! This, in a book of 331 pages? Chapters are actually topics: AIDS, Difficult Patients, Pelvic Exams, etc. The problem is that the reader never quite feels that we are progressing with her from day to day, month to month, and year to year at Harvard. I never quite caught excatly when and how she was allowed to see patients. In one chapter, she was suddenly with her first patient. I want to read this book and really know what happens at the Harvard Medical School! It's her first book, and quite obviously she means well, but her book is really an amateur effort. She is probably a good doctor but her writing skills need much honing.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flat writing spoils the story, December 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: White Coat: Becoming A Doctor At Harvard Medical School (Hardcover)

As a graduate of the same program as Ellen Rothman I was eager to read her book. Unfortunately, I found that her writing was so lacking in creativity that even the most dramatic experiences were hard to get through. The narrator's voice is strong and obscures the stories. I found it difficult to see or experience what she or other characters experienced. There is so much raw emotion available to writers in medical school that it is a shame that Ellen was unable to transmit this to the reader.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very bad. A pointless read., October 4, 2000

By 

"f_cazac" (Antwerp, BELGIUM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Coat: Becoming A Doctor At Harvard Medical School (Paperback)

Before embarking on my medical degree, I decided to do a little bit of research. Sadly, I made the mistake of buying this book.

As a university graduate, excited at the prospect of furthering my studying in the US, I can honestly say that this book assumes no intelligence.I may not have the best English in the world, coming from Belgium, but I thought the book would stretch my mind at least a bit!

Who, then is meant to read this? Surely it is intended for aspiring doctors. Ms Rothman obviously doesn't believe that we have any intelligence!

Silly examples in this "book" include pointless referrence to ER - wow - how inventive!

Even more annoying were the tedious and over-laboured parts that included the author's love life - they all sound as weird as Ms Rothman, thankfully!I really would not like to meet this bunch of strange people - it sounds like a horro story to me, not romantic at all!

So what kind of book is it? Fiction? A diary?

I think its just self glorification, and arrogance.

This title is only worthy of being published by a vanity press.

My search for intelligent accounts of a doctors life continues!