Staying Human during Residency Training

Staying Human during Residency Training is a concise manual designed for medical students, interns, residents and postdoctoral fellows in all areas of specialization. The first 'edition, published in 1991, provided hundreds of practical tips on coping with stress, sleep deprivation, time pressures, and other issues of concern to hospital residents. The second edition, published in 1998, updated and expanded the original by providing guidance on career choices and financial planning, as well as suggestions for enhancing personal and professional relationships. It also discussed ethical and legal matters and issues pertinent to women, parents, and international and minority students. Widely anticipated, the third edition of this essential reference emphasizes, not only surviving, but thriving during internship, residency, and fellowship. It contains hundreds of new references, websites, addresses and tips on coping with medical training in North America and worldwide. Peterkin emphasizes ways of deepening relationships with colleagues, friends, and family, and fostering more empathic connection with patients. He also offers practical antidotes to cynicism, careerism, and burnout. As with the first and second editions, the new Staying Human during Residency Training will prove to be a veritable bible to medical students and new physicians pursuing post-graduate training.

About the Author :
ALLAN D. PETERKIN is a practicing psychiatrist and an associate professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, and Community and Family Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Review :
'I recommend this book without hesitation, to both interns and residents in training and also to attending physicians and educators, who have such an intimate involvement in the lives and futures of their colleagues.' - Th?r?se Madden-Fitzsimmons - Humane Medicine 'There is no area in a resident's life that Dr. Peterkin doesn't tackle: finances, substance abuse, fellowship options, foreign, gay, and disabled students, ethical and legal considerations, study tips and support groups. It's the ultimate how-to book for all apprentice doctors and its common-sense approach makes it a mandatory trouble-shooter.' Elaine McNinch - Family Practice 'This book will go a long way toward alleviating much of the worry and demoralization in contemporary residents, their partner or spouse. A copy should be stuffed into the pocket of every resident physician.' - Michael Myers, MD, author of Doctor's Marriages: A Look at Problems and their Solutions 'This excellent little book comes at a time when there is renewed interest on the part of medical educators in doing something to reduce psychological morbidity in medical students and house staff... An informative and readable manual that should be compulsory reading for all final year medical students, residents and teaching staff.' - James McSherry - The Medical Post 'This lucidly written book offers practical advice on making the most of the residency experience.' - Ian W. Toal - Canadian Book Review Annual 'Though Staying Human has a very large scope, with a target audience that ranges from medical students to senior residents, its practical advice is probably most helpful for medical students and interns, who spend the most hours in the hospital but may not have had the chance to develop their own tools for staying sane. It is also a useful reference, bringing together, in a concise form, a plethora of data that would be helpful on the medical floors, and offering guidance that is not so easily available elsewhere ... But even for those past their early days of training, for whom such information would just be review, the book is an important reminder: that humane treatment - of oneself and of fellow residents, as well as our patients - is what makes a good doctor, and that one cannot have empathy without good self-caretaking. That is a lesson we can all afford to review.' - Sonya Rasminsky, C.I.R. (Committee of Interns and Residents) News 'Through most of this century physicians have looked back on their internship and residency years as a painful but necessary maturation ritual. Once out of residency, they quickly forget, or at least deny, how much damage - depression, burn-out, marriage breakdown, alcoholism, and suicide - was wrought during the process. Allan Peterkin, a recent graduate of residency programs in family medicine and psychiatry, provides a useful guide for self-preservation and well-being. It should be required reading for all graduating medical students.' - Bruce P. Squires - Canadian Medical Association Journal