Supporting Career and Personal Development.

A profound insight into the state of our health care system, the wellbeing of patients and that of their doctors.Our health care system is struggling. We live in an era of factory style medicine; spiralling costs; complex and chronic conditions; and doctors at the heart of it under pressure as never before. Witnessing worrying burnout in her doctor husband, Lucy Mayes went on a quest to find out what is really going on behind the scenes in medicine. Lucy asked doctors on the front lines how they make meaning in their work, what quality medicine looks like to them, and what their hopes are for the future of medicine. What emerged were consistent messages about elements of practice that the culture and systems of medicine still struggle to understand and support: the power of humanism; compassion; time; listening; the therapeutic relationship; and mind-body plus other whole-person understandings of health and healing. Beyond the Stethoscope will leave readers shocked, moved and inspired by the human story and wisdom of those who sit before them in that most intimate and ancient of humanist exchanges: that of the doctor and patient.

This is a new and outstanding contribution to understanding the working life of junior doctors. It opens out the field of research in sociology and inserts junior medical doctor culture right into medical sociology and professional medical education by its innovative use of Pierre Bourdieu's sociological framework and the concept of habitus. This volume challenges many of the myths of the medical cultural experiences and socializing forces that are an integral part of early medical training.

Ranga Rao (1942-2018) was a feisty doctor who refused to be stifled by the constraints of a bureaucracy and contributed to significant improvements in the public health system of Andhra Pradesh. His recollections range from working in a primitive tribal area as a young man, rigorous training in the United Kingdom, setting up a corporation for people with disabilities, and to playing a role in revamping the family planning system in the state. His recollections are peppered with graphic narrations of events including his hair raising experience of working with the medical teams supporting the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka. A must read for those who are skeptical about the possibilities of working with and in government.

A surprising investigation of a scientific instrument long at the pulse of medicine. This book explores the colorful past, present, and future of an instrument that is, quite literally, close to our hearts. The stethoscope has become the symbol of medicine itself—how did this come to be? What makes the stethoscope such a familiar yet charismatic object? Drawing from a range of fields including history, anthropology, science, technology, and sound studies, the book illustrates the variety of roles the stethoscope has played over time. It shows that the stethoscope is not, and has never been, a single entity. It is used to a variety of ends, serves several purposes, and is open to many interpretations. This variability is the key to the stethoscope’s enduring presence in the medical and popular imagination.