Pauline Chen , a young liver transplant surgeon and former UCLA faculty member, has written a wonderful book that anyone contemplating or beginning a career as a doctor should read. Dr. Chen’s Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality is an amazing and inspiring read about the arduous and rigorous training she underwent to become a surgeon. Like most doctors, she was focused on saving lives and was unprepared for dealing with death.  She noticed that her teachers and colleagues, with few exceptions, tended to flee terminal patients and were focused on preserving and extending life rather than trying to ease suffering and helping patients and their families prepare for a good death. This book gives the reader a peek not only into the challenges that doctors must face, but also what goes into making a doctor great.
MSEL has two copies of this beautifully written and compassionate book; one is in the McNaughton Collection, and the other is in the stacks under RD27.35.C47 A3 2007.
I believe preserving and externding life should go hand in hand with easing suffering comforting terminally ill patients, doctors should not flee one for the other. Looking forward to reading the book.
Thanks. Very appropriate for many Hopkins students. I’ll check it out.