Customer Reviews

White Coat: Becoming A Doctor At Harvard Medical School

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

I cannot fathom why this book was published. Apparently, the author thought she had something to say that was worth reading just because she attended a prestigious medical school and because she's a woman. Before you think that I have an axe to grind, I don't. I am both a woman AND a graduate of an Ivy League medical school, but I don't think that students of more esteemed schools necessarily have a monopoly on interesting experiences during med school. Dr. Melvin Konner's "Becoming a Doctor" is far more insightful, and Dr. Kevin Pezzi's "Believe It or Not! True Emergency Room Stories" provides some interesting glimpses into what medical education is really like and how it impacts students.

Throughout "White Coat" Dr. Rothman expresses a cold, almost robotic detachment that left me, as a reader, feeling cheated. Rothman had no provocative insights to share, nor was she willing to express any emotion unless it was something very superficial. I don't know what compelled her to write in such a stilted manner. My guess is that she thinks such icy detachment is a mark of professionalism, but she comes off as having a haughty aloofness.

Another aspect of the book that left me reeling in disgust was when she sophomorically raved about the television show "ER." If such a fictitious show is so important to her, that suggests in an ipso facto way that she does not have the maturity and perspective to write a worthwhile book on medical school.

I have read many books about the process of becoming a doctor, and looked forward eagerly to reading this one. However, I found it so poorly written that it was almost unreadable. The writer sounds like a compassionate person who is almost surely a fine and caring doctor, but I think she should stick to that profession and not writing. I never felt I got to know her in any way---her emotions and thoughts came through in a severely muted way. Her main way of describing each and every person she encounters, patient or not, is by their appearance---with special attention to if they are at all overweight---with note of if this is mild, moderate or severe! Even when telling about her most upsetting experience ever during her training, a case where by not speaking up, a child might have been given a medication he was allergic to, she was not able to describe the incident or her feelings in such a way that I felt any of what she felt. I did enjoy hearing some of the medical stories, but I think I would have enjoyed them just as much if they were simply a case history and not part of this book. I am surprised this account was actually published.

I had attempted to read a few books similar to this one, always finding myself too bored to make it even half-way through. However, Dr.Lerner-Rothman's book took a much more humanistic approach, with lots of personal touches. She described the entire experience of Harvard Medical School, giving extra time to the more curious and interesting facets (e.g., the first gynecological and urological exams.) I especially appreciated the way she included her observations of women going into medicine. For example, she speculates that less women become general surgeons because women are still expected to be the primary caretakers, being able to pick up their kids from school at the drop of a hat. True, the writing is not pulitzer-prize caliber, but that's why she was becoming a DOCTOR and not an ENGLISH TEACHER. Anyway, overall, I found this book to be infinitely more readable than any other book like it on the market.

As an aspiring medical student, I began reading this work with great interest. I found it to be a great source of information on the learning processes and procedures in medical school. However, I agree with another reviewer in feeling that it was difficult to get through this book. She reserved her opinions of fellow students, doctors, and procedures so well that she removed most of the humanity from her writing. I think this was a result of trying to be too "PC," as another reviewer put it; I could understand how she wanted to write objectively about her experiences in the abortion clinic, but I left that chapter feeling cold and appalled. In addition, the journalistic detail she uses in describing her third and fourth year patient experiences seemed to be just belabored at times, because it didn't appear serve its purpose in bringing out the humanity of the situation. In summary, although the writing seems "aseptic" and cumbersome, I appreciate her insight into the workings of the medical school experience.

My wife and I had roughly the same experience reading this book - after the initial hundred pages or so the descriptions became rote, the observations repetitive, and the writing just got somewhat tiresome. We both had a hard time working up the energy to finish this book. This is not a great piece of journalism - rather it is Dr. Lerner's sometimes interesting, sometimes boring diary of her experience making it through Harvard Medical School.

The first few chapters of this book left me wondering how Lerner Rothman ever got the go-ahead to write this book; her writing is distractingly poor. Double adjectives, often redundant, litter her narrative. When she's not over-explaining, she's vague and uses constructions so convoluted I had to read them several times to understand them. But she seems to warm up to the task as she moves through her studies, and I found myself warming up to her. Still, she's so PC, she leaves out a lot--ask anyone who's been to Harvard about the dramatic egotists who call themselves healers there. Also, having worked in hospitals for years, I'd have to say that if she thought watching ER was giving her a taste for the real thing, she's wrong. I can list at least 20 descrepancies between what ER, the tv show and ERs in real life. That doctors and EDs behave as in real life as they do on ER is WISHFUL thinking. Looking forward to Ellen growing up a little, and also hearing about the proving ground of her residency.

The book was very disorganized. The author skipped back and forth in time quite often- she'd be talking about the end of second year and what was going on then, and suddenly we'd be in the midst of a story set on the first day of second year. Very confusing. Her tone was very dry and very clinical. She talked often about being terrified of certain procedures, but I didn't really get the sense that she was all that frightened. Everything is described in a very removed way, and I feel that after reading this, I am no more the wise about being a medical student at Harvard. I was hoping the book would be better.