This is the first major study of a significant post within the British government. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources and interviews with senior health professionals and politicians, this book positions the Chief Medical Officer as one of the most influential individuals within the Whitehall system, with personal responsibility for the health of the population. Through a number of case studies, including the 1950s smoking and lung caner issue, and the AIDS and BSE crises of the 1980s and 1990s, "The Nation's Doctor" examines how the CMO operates, drawing on expertise to inform the direction of government health policy.

An anthology that addresses the changing nature of rural medicine in the United States "These authors courageously document the emotional and literally physical vulnerabilities they experience while delivering care in rural communities. ... This book exquisitely illustrates the complexity of 'dual relationships' and boundary issues in rural practice."--Family Medicine Over the past thirty years, rural health care in the United States has changed dramatically. The stereotypical white-haired doctor with his black bag of instruments and his predominantly white, small-town clientele has imploded: the global age has reached rural America. Independently owned clinics have given way to a massive system of hospitals; new technology now brings specialists right to the patient's bedside; and an increasingly diverse clientele has sparked the need for doctors and nurses with an equally diverse assortment of skills. The Country Doctor Revisited is a fascinating collection of essays, poems, and short stories written by rural health care professionals on the experiences of doctors and nurses practicing medicine in rural environments, such as farms, reservations, and migrant camps. The pieces explore the benefits and burdens of new technology, the dilemmas in making ethically sound decisions, and the trials of caring for patients in a broken system. Alternately compelling, thought provoking, and moving, they speak of the diversity of rural health care providers, the range of patients served in rural communities, the variety of settings that comprise the rural United States, and the resources and challenges health care providers and patients face today.

"Cook recounts fifty years of service as a rural doctor in Texas and Nebraska, where a wide spectrum of dilemmas tested his resourcefulness, endurance, and sense of humor. His humourous account of life in the first half of the twentieth century conveys a distinct sense of the slings and arrows of doctoring on the plains". -- Jacket.

A brilliant and ambitious woman is eager to establish her career as a doctor but is forced to choose between her occupation and married life. This timely tale presents an internal conflict facing women in the nineteenth century and beyond. Nan is a bright young woman who grows up under the tutelage of the widowed physician, Dr. Leslie. She became interested in medicine at an early age and decides to pursue it as an adult. Unfortunately, her desire to start a career goes against the social conventions of the day. Women are expected to prioritize marriage and children over any profession. Yet, Nan struggles to desert her goals to appease others. It’s a trying dilemma that pits her against her family, friends and local residents. A Country Doctor is a semiautobiographical story influenced by the author’s personal path to independence. The novel explores the many limitations women encounter when attempting to establish a career. It’s a forward-thinking tale and source of encouragement for those seeking professional growth. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of A Country Doctor is both modern and readable.

In this quietly revolutionary work of social observation and medical philosophy, Booker Prize-winning writer John Berger and the photographer Jean Mohr train their gaze on an English country doctor and find a universal man--one who has taken it upon himself to recognize his patient's humanity when illness and the fear of death have made them unrecognizable to themselves. In the impoverished rural community in which he works, John Sassall tend the maimed, the dying, and the lonely. He is not only the dispenser of cures but the repository of memories. And as Berger and Mohr follow Sassall about his rounds, they produce a book whose careful detail broadens into a meditation on the value we assign a human life. First published thirty years ago, A Fortunate Man remains moving and deeply relevant--no other book has offered such a close and passionate investigation of the roles doctors play in their society. "In contemporary letters John Berger seems to me peerless; not since Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of conscience." --Susan Sontag

"This book was previously published in 2004 under the title The apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty, by Insomniac Press, Toronto"--T.p. verso.

A book of quick, simple, time-proven cures for anything that ails...