This is Going to Hurt
Adam Kay · first published 2017 · ISBN 9781549129186
A junior doctor in the British National Health Service documents a decade of obstetrics through 'secret diary' entries. Kay captures the reality of residency: exhaustion, impossible patient loads, impossible choices, and gallows humor keeping people sane. He writes about the moments when training meets actual human vulnerability and the cost of that collision.
On our lists
The Best Medical Memoirs
This book shows medicine through someone still learning, not yet seasoned. Kay's voice is contemporary and irreverent, making the memoir accessible to readers who find older surgeon narratives less relatable. It fills a gap by showing training-year medicine from inside.