Throughout Patel demonstrates acute understanding of doctors’ mindsets: “You know you’re superhuman,” he writes with a wink, “but patients appreciate it when you humanize yourself with a little humor and a smile in your voice.” Cooperation, empathy, active listening, and connections are some of the operative words as Patel offers detailed examples of his and his colleague's experiences, both positive and negative, showing the harsh reality of crazy hours, challenging emotions, high-level surgery, and patient care, with a little joke here and there and much clear-eyed guidance about how “the emo- tionally intelligent physician understands that managing chaos doesn’t mean you act chaotically.”
Patel’s advice and anecdotes read like intimate talk from a caring mentor urging for a new level of bedside manner. He’s not just pushing for niceness—this is about listening to the patient, putting aside the ego, and creating solutions. Patel’s encouraging call for self-awareness and improvement is specific to the medical world but readers from any field will find this rousing.
Takeaway: Rousing call for self-awareness and emotional intelligence in medical careers.
Comparable Titles: Michael Stein’s Accidental Kindness, Shareef Mahdavi’s Beyond Bedside Manner.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A
