VITAL SIGNS

An insight into what it's like to be a first year junior doctor - the ups and downs, the drama and how terrifying it is to finally be making decisions.

How can I be a thorough and compassionate doctor while still leaving work before 7pm? How do I uphold dignity and autonomy for people whose liberty has been taken because of severe mental illness? How will I know when what we can do for a critically ill patient is different from what we should do? Is this floor clean enough to sleep on? Izzy grapples with these questions and more as she rotates through psychiatry, orthopaedics, medicine and surgery. Thoughtful, funny, and at times heart-breaking, this book invites readers to join Izzy through the highs and lows of being an apprentice in the art and science of medicine. We're seeing a lot of medical memoirs at the moment, and many of them are a straightforward retelling of an accomplished doctor's life and career. This one is different. It's a memoir of Izzy's first year as a house officer, but it's also a funny and thoughtful insight into the hospital microcosmos, from the perspective of a junior doctor with an unusual origin story, who also holds a BA in Linguistics; a young woman who not only has to prove herself as a female doctor, but also faces prejudices against being gay and chubby. Izzy is both a doctor and a keen writer. Along with her MBChB, she has a BA in Linguistics. She has written pieces for The New Zealand Herald and for Corpus (a website that publishes health-related writing).