Becoming a Better Physician

This book offers insights from doctors and doctors-to-be about successes they’ve enjoyed and obstacles they’ve faced, personal and professional. Some of these essays are easy to celebrate, and others are painful to absorb. All encourage the reader to reflect upon their own stories, embrace vulnerabilities, forgive shortcomings, celebrate resilience, and, by doing so, become a better physician. The topics covered in these essays are divided into six chapters titled Learning and Training, Career, Caregiving, Physician as Patient, Personal Growth, and Love and Loss. Authors discuss a wide range of experiences that include combining marriage and residency, navigating racism, honing communication, forging relationships with patients and colleagues, battling addiction, getting fired, facing death, and more. Becoming a Better Physician is a beautifully written volume that will enlighten physicians, future physicians, and anyone interested in learning how physicians grow as medical professionals and as human beings. Read the Editors' discussion of the book with Harvard Medicine Magazine here: https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/medicine-burnout-and-stories-doctors-tell