Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life-and-death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.

Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This Is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know - and more than a few things you didn't - about life on and off the hospital ward.

Sunday Times number-one best seller and Humour Book of the Year.

This edition includes extra diary entries and a new afterword by the author.

Listening Length

5 hours and 47 minutes
Author

Adam Kay
Narrator

Adam Kay
Audible release date

7 September 2017
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
ASIN

B071GLW6L8
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	5 hours and 47 minutes
Author	Adam Kay
Narrator	Adam Kay
Audible.com.au Release Date	07 September 2017
Publisher	Picador
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B071GLW6L8
Best Sellers Rank	172 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Biographies of Medical Professionals (Books) 1 in Health Care Education 1 in Medical Education & Training (Books)

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		22%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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peter reed

A great if not disturbing read.

Reviewed in Australia on 17 December 2018

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This is an auto biography of a 'graduate' doctor within a highly stressed and, apparently, failing system in the UK. I spent a significant amount of my reading time just shaking my head and wondering how could a system do this to its most highest of trained professionals.
The read itself is enthralling, amusing and disturbing - all the lightest possible of ways. So - if you are looking for a book that gives you an insight (albeit a singular one) into a system which, at your worst of times, SHOULD be your savior - then read this. Then eat well, keep fit and stay away from harm as your life may depend on it...

7 people found this helpful

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Yes it will definitely hurt.

Reviewed in Australia on 11 August 2020

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Now you know what the life of a junior doctor is really like. A beautifully written account and although the author has now moved on to writing which he does so well. I feel it's a shame that he didn't carry on with medicine as he seems to be a capable and truly caring doctor. I was a nurse so many years ago and found that some doctors really don't care much about their patients. Please read this book and spare a kind thought for the exhausted and overworked hospital doctor. Not only that but he has a wicked sense of humour.

2 people found this helpful

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Funny, heart-warming and saddening

Reviewed in Australia on 26 February 2018

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Adam Kay was once a very senior doctor. He had a wealth of experience. Now he’s a writer. In this fast-paced, well-written book he describes the trials, tribulations and comic highs of life as a junior doctor in the NHS. They work at a punishing pace for not much money, losing time with family and friends, for years. No wonder it’s hard to sustain relationships. Yet they love their jobs, and the glorious satisfaction of saving lives keeps them going.

There are some real laugh-out-loud moments. The guy who stuck his dick in a fan comes to mind, for example. And it’s surprising what people will put up themselves. A doctor often needs to psychologise his way past patients with weird ideas, inflicting common sense by any means available.

For all this lightness of touch, though, Kay’s final message is grim. Obsessed with KPI’s and cost-cutting, successive governments have screwed the idealism of medical professionals to breaking point. The conditions these people work under are brutal and would not be tolerated in any other profession. So why, when it’s a case of life and death, or the difference between a healthy life or an impaired one, is the government so insistent on forcing these highly trained people to leave either medicine or the country? This is a crie de couer that should be read by every Brit.

4 people found this helpful

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leah

Gosh, I'm going to have to take some flowers to my gyno.

Reviewed in Australia on 20 September 2018

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An interesting and funny insight in to a doctors life, I loved how each patient's story was short and to the point, with the medical explanations at the back. Towards the end it takes a more serious turn, I have never really stopped to think about the lives of the doctors that help us, and the pressure they are under. (in the UK, who know's maybe here in Australia also) . A must read for any one who's in the medical industry or if you are wanting to read a quick bio thats a little different to the norm.

7 people found this helpful

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RMP

Honest, heart wrenching and humorous

Reviewed in Australia on 22 May 2019

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This was a great account of one man’s journey with the NHS. Unfortunately, some of the previous reviewers led me to believe this would be funnier than it was. I was expecting more along the lines of Samuel Shem’s “House Of God” antics. (I do realize the previous book was fiction). Having said that, I empathized with the bone weary exhaustion, the inane and archaic rules and regulations and the complete lack of understanding from anyone outside the system. It’s a shame we’ll lose more great doctors from burnout before the system changes. Thank you, Adam, for giving us an honest look inside.

One person found this helpful

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Missamity

A great read

Reviewed in Australia on 18 October 2018

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I downloaded this before a plane journey and spent the entire flight stifling laughter and reading obsessively. Arriving home at midnight I kepttright on reading. An excellent insight into the travails of aa young doctor. Very funny but with an undercurrent of frustration at the idiocies of the National Health. A great read.

5 people found this helpful

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Nel Kanas

The honest truth about doctoring

Reviewed in Australia on 26 January 2020

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I read the bad reviews first and thought that if people were criticising doctors having low pay for overworking whilst they were saving people’s lives, then the complainers were either morons or just wanted to see their names in print.

Then I read the positive reviews which said I would laugh out loud. Well, the anecdotes were amusingly written and I applaud Dr Adam for his openness which gives us an honest look behind the scenes.

It was an eye-opener for me and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has either fell under the scalpel or held one.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

What it's really like to train as a doctor

Reviewed in Australia on 19 October 2020

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This is a humorous look at what it's really like to train as a doctor. The House of God of this era. Because Kay never practiced as a consultant, he doesn't know how annoying that can be since MMC, although has does note the burn out rate at all grades.
He puts his finger on the real problem of unrealistic expectations of the public and administrators and that neither think of doctors as humans. If an individual behaved the same way as this system, we would call them a psychopath and lock them up for the safety of society. It should be a compulsory text for administrators involving tests and dismissal for failure to appreciate the point of the book, but that won't happen either.

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Top reviews from other countries

wendwoo1

NHS on its knees....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2018

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Working on the wards as an auxiliary all through Uni as well as a being a Student Nurse, and then qualifying as a Staff Nurse I have a complete understanding for not just the funny stories, but sadly the down sides of what our junior doctors have to endure.

I have been the impatient Nurse paging an already overstretched junior doctor to come and review a patient, prescribe more pain relief or fluids, check Gent or Vanc levels or write a discharge letter (as the patient is standing in front of me dressed, holding their packed belongings with their angry relative who has come to collect them...because the Consultant told them 7 hours ago on the ward round they could go home after dinner).

I have taken junior doctors a cup of tea, a biscuit and a “patients sandwich” from the ward fridge because it’s 6pm and they haven’t eaten or drank anything since before their shift started 9 hours ago.

I have been there on a ward round when they have been belittled by a Consultant in front of their colleagues and the patient for not ordering a test the day before, or because they didn’t give an answer to a seemingly straightforward question and have been met with raised eyebrows and “did you graduate from medical school Dr?” from said Consultant.

I have also been the nurse on Nightshift when things have been the “Q” word, turning a blind eye as a junior doctor sneaks into the Day unit next door for some shut eye because they are exhausted on their 5th night. Or sitting at the Nurses Station swapping comical stories about patients, because sometimes you need that shared humour to get you through to the end of your shift.

I left the wards for a less stressful stint in Occupational Health after 6 years of working rotational shifts, which I appreciate on the grand scale of things is not that long at all. However, for my own sanity I felt I had no choice. I was burnt out, stressed, irritable, permanently exhausted through crazy shift patterns (3 nights, a sleep day then a day shift, off for two then back in for 3 days?) sick of constantly being short staffed, being left unsupported (especially on nights) and having to make decisions above my pay grade then being chastised for it in the morning by Sister, missing countless social and family gatherings because of “being on shift”, my husband and I were on the road to starting IVF treatment after unsuccessfully trying for a baby for nearly 3 years....the list goes on.

The NHS relies on the goodwill of its staff working past their time, (usually writing up notes or Incident forms that you haven’t had time to do during your shift), or swapping their shift due to staff shortages at the last minute, relies on them building their own support network instead of giving them the right support to deal with traumatic events that are all too common in the job (but no amount of training will ever prepare you for), working through their breaks “because the ward is too busy”....etc, etc

The pressures of the job are increased ten fold by the pressures of management, audits, paperwork (sometimes its like paperwork for the sake of paperwork) which is generated by our unrealistic government. And also not forgetting the negative attention the media places on the situation giving some patients/relatives the idea that your fair game in questioning your abilities and informing you the papers said this or that so it must be true...it’s sad to think that this wonderful system that was once the envy of the world has been brought to its knees, leading valuable and extremely competent staff to leave the profession in their droves.

660 people found this helpful

Probably best he changed careers.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2018

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I didn’t like this book. I’d say that right from the start Adam clearly wasn’t cut out for doctoring. He didn’t seem to enjoy his job from the start. It was moan, moan, moan. Not well enough paid, no time off, working until the job he has started was finished etc. He should have done more research before he went to medical school.
I completely understand about black humour in times of stress and it is a stressful job but all of what he lists as ‘anecdotes’ were human beings and even if they did some weird things and weren’t too bright - they still didn’t deserve to be the butt if his jokes and used to earn him a penny or two when he gave up doctoring.
I’m not even sure that he liked his patients and I think it’s probably just as well he has left the profession. I finished the book but I wouldn’t recommend it and I’m not sure how it gets all the good reviews - well I am, he no doubt has a very good agent and publicity machine.

518 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

An emotional trup

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 February 2018

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I worked as a nurse and student midwife in the seventies. I have witnessed many things both incredibly happy and devastating sad. But with the black humour and support of colleges we coped. The situation is now desperately and in many cases life-threatening deplorable. I loved this book and would highly recommended that all ministers as well as managers of hospital trusts read it and ask themselves why it is allowed to get worse . To Adam kay, I think you are a remarkable person your book was an amazing read

506 people found this helpful

A Chain

Not funny, repetitive, cynical and an unpleasant read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2019

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I bought this book (Kindle edition) because of Kindle pop up adds which held snatches of rave reviews from people I have actually heard of. The reviews assured me it was laugh out loud funny and after my last disappointing and somewhat heavy read it was just what the doctor ordered (you see what I did there). Only I did not find it funny at all. I found it cynical, occasionally bordering on misogynist in his horrible descriptions of women and their bodily parts when they are at their most vulnerable (gynae detail in the book but perhaps not for a review but describing a womans vagina as a 'tw*t' is one such example). I think possibly the author was going for wry and dry humour but to me it came across as toxic and unpleasantly brutal at times. The books was repetitive and the initial faintly amusing anecdotes paled after a relatively short number of pages. I did however read it all and in the interests of full disclosure laughed out loud once. Just the once when he was describing two unfortunate names given to new babies but that was it. The book is not without merit - it does describe working conditions for junior doctors in such a way as to be a call to arms for those of us keen to protect our NHS - as indeed the author is and his stories are compelling: the NHS is at risk, worth saving and possibly even dangerous for patients in running on a threadbare empty purse. I hope the book at least draws attention to that aspect of the authors writing but laugh out loud funny it is not.

253 people found this helpful

Aaron

Unputdownbable and Very very funny....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2017

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As a doctor myself, I found Adam's book honest and endearing, but above all very funny. He uses humour throughout to tell us of his experiences, both good and grim and how to came out the other side and ultimately left the profession. Definitely one of those 'un-put-downables.' I had the whole book finished within a day. This got a few laughs from me, well done Adam for producing such a great book!

207 people found this helpful

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