Why do you want to be a doctor?

There are a lot of common answers for this question. Because…I watched my father healed by an amazing physician, …I have always been interested in science and medicine, …I was sick when I was little. The reasons why students want to be a physician are honest, heartfelt and legion. Unfortunately the reality of being a Doctor isn’t quite what an aspiring physician thinks it is. More often than not students spend the bulk of their time on academics and the “important” extracurricular activities. While observing or shadowing, is an important and meaningful experience it can be deficit. The level of maturity of understanding of ethics, morality and the role a physician plays in and out of the hospital or clinic is often unfortunately underdeveloped. So where are well-intentioned students to turn? Reading, more reading is an advisor’s mantra and now we can say it again… read. Below is a list of “must read” or highly suggested books suggested by pre-medicine and health professional advisors throughout the country on the Health Professions Advising Forum.

· Kenneth Ludmerer, Time to Heal

· Rosemary Jones, Educational and Career Opportunities in Alternative Medicine

· Dianne Boulerice Lyons, Planning Your Career In Alternative Medicine: A Guide to Degree and Certificate Programs in Alternative Healthcare

· Michael Crichton, Five Patients: The Hospital Explained

· Ellen Lerner Rothman, White Coat: Becoming a Doctor at Harvard Medical, 1999

· Perri Klass, A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student

· Perri Klass, Baby Doctor

· Charles LeBaron, Gentle Vengeance

· David Ewing Duncan, Residents: The Perils and Promise of Educating Young Doctors

· Ruth B. Purtilo & Amy Haddad, Health Professional and Patient Interaction,5th Edition

· Edited by Mike Magee, M.D.,The 50 Most Positive Doctors in America, An illustrated, coffee table size book published by Spencer Books, Ltd., Canada

· Charles Lebaron, Gentle Vengenance

· Melvin Konner, M.D., Becoming a Doctor: A Journey of Initiation in Medical School

· Geri-Ann Galanti, Caring for Patients from Different Cultures: Case Studies from American Hospitals

· Albert Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought

· Marie L. Lassey, William R. Lassey, and Martin Jinks, Health Care Systems Around the

· World: Characteristics, Issues, Reforms

· Howard S. Becker et al. Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School

· Robert Marion Learning to Play God: The Coming of Age of a Young Doctor

· Robert Marion The Intern Blues

· Ben Carson, Gifted Hands, the Ben Carson Story

· Bruce Dan, A Piece of My Mind: A Collection of Essays from JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association),1988

· Edited by Charlene Breedlove, Uncharted Lines: Poems from the Journal of the American Medical Association

· David Hilfiker, Healing the Wounds: A Physician Looks at his Work

· Richard Selzer, Letters to a Young Doctor

· Howard Spiro et al. (eds.): Empathy and the Practice of Medicine, Beyond the Pill and Scapel

· John Stone, In the Country of Hearts: Journeys in the Art of Medicine

· William Carlos Williams, The Doctor Stories

· John McPhee, Heirs of General Practice

· Philip Zazove, When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes: Memoirs of a Deaf Doctor

· Edited by Richard Reynolds, M.D. & John Stone, M.D. On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays

· Sherwin B. Nuland, The Biography of Medicine

· Sherwin B. Nuland, How We Die

· Sherwin B. Nuland, Doctors

· Leonard Laster, M.D. Life After Medical School, Thirty-two Doctors Describe How They Shaped Their Medical Careers

· Dominique Lapierre, Beyond Love

· Patch Adams with Maureen Mylander, Gesundheit

· Patch Adams and Pamela Jacobs Housecalls How We Can All Heal The World One Visit at a Time

· Michael Crichton, Five Patients: The Hospital Explained

· Anton Chekhov, Ward Six and Other Stories

· Harlan Gibbs, MD and Alan Duncan Ross, The Medicine of ER, or How We Almost Die,

· Howard Brody, Stories of Sickness

· Gregory E. Pence, Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of Cases that have Shaped Medical Ethics with Philosophical, Legal, and Historical Background

· Lisa Belkin, First, Do No Harm

· Marie L. Lassey, William R. Lassey, and Martin Jinks Health Care Systems Around the World: Characteristics, Issues, Reforms

· John Mc Phee, Heirs of General Practice

· Gilda Radner, It's Always Something

· Joycelyn Elders, From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the USA

· Leonard Laster. Life after Medical School: Thirty-two Doctors Describe How They Shaped Their Medical Careers

· George Eliot, Middlemarch

· David Hilfiker, Not All of Us are Saints: A Doctor's Journey with the Poor

· Richard Reynolds and John Stone, eds , On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays

· Albert Schweitzer , Out of My Life and Thought

· Howard Brody , Stories of Sickness

· Robert Coles, The Call of Service

· Warren Salmon,ed, The Corporate Transformation of Health Care: Perspectives and Implications, by J.

· William Carlos Williams, The Doctor Stories

· Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine

· Anton Chekhov, Ward Six and Other Stories

· Abraham Verghese ,My Own Country

· Arthur W. Frank, At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness

· Robert Marion , Learning to Play God

· Pedro José Greer Jr., Waking Up in America: How One Doctor Brings Hope to Those Who Need It Most

· Harlan Gibbs, and Alan Duncan Ross, The Medicine of ER, or How We Almost Die" by Basicbooks

· Lori Arviso Alvord, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear

· Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

· Anne Fadiman. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

· Patch Adams with Maureen Mylander, GESUNDHEIT!: Bringing good health to you, the medical system, and society through physican service, complementary therapies, humor, and joy

· Patch Adams and Pamela Jacobs, HOUSE CALLS : How We Can All Heal the World One Visit at a Time

· John Marr and John Baldwin, The Eleventh Plague

· George Anders, Health Against Wealth: HMO’s and the Breakdown of Medical Trust

· Marie and William Lassey and Martin Jinks, Health Care Systems Around the World

· James Morone and Gary Belkin Ed., The Politics of Health Care Reform: Lessons from the Past, Prospects for the Future

· HM Swartz and DL Gottheil Ed., The Education of Physician Scholars: Preparing for Leadership in the Health Care System

· Anatole Broyard , Intoxicated by My Illness

· Harold Bursztajn. Dr. Bursztajn , Medical Choices, Medical Chances

· Robert Coles, The Call of Stories

· Arthur Kleinman, The Illness Narratives

· Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

· Irvine Loudon Ed., WESTERN MEDICINE An Illustrated History

· Bursztajn, Harold; Feinbloom, Richard; Hamm, Robert; and Brodsky, Archie. Medical Choices, Medical Chances. How Patients, Families, and Physicians Can Cope with Uncertainty

· Colgrove, Melba; Bloomfield, Harold; and McWilliams, Peter. How to Survive the Loss of a Love

· Ethan Canin, The Palace Thief

· Ann Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

· Theodore Fox Purposes of Medicine, The Lancet. October 23, 1965. pp: 801-805.

· Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith

· Robert Marion, Learning to Play God: The Coming of Age of a Young Doctor

· Susan Mates, The Good Doctor

· Peter Selwyn, Surviving the Fall: The Personal journey of an AIDS Doctor

· Samuel Shem, House of God

· John Stone, In the Country of Hearts

Contributing Advisors

Beth A. Bailey, M.A. - Director of Admissions U. Virginia School of Medicine

Judy M. Jensvold – Cornell

Daniel L. Schadler - Oglethorpe University

David Egloff - Oberlin College

Peggy Carey Best - Wesleyan University

Benita A. Brink - Adams State College

Kathryn M. Tunkel - Syracuse University

Susan Cooperman - SUNYat Stony Brook

Daniel Marien – Retired

Laurence A. Savett - Macalester and University of St. Thomas