Reading List
Resources for Applying to Programs
These books were selected to help you choose a career path and apply to programs.
EMT Crash Course with Online Practice Test, 2nd Edition by ISBN: 9780738688558Publication Date: 2018
Essays That Will Get You into Medical School by Publication Date: 2014-05-01
The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Personal Statement by Publication Date: 2018-08-21
The Premed Playbook Guide to the Medical School Interview by Publication Date: 2017-06-06
What Psychology Majors Could (and Should) Be Doing by ISBN: 9781433823794Publication Date: 2016-11-01
Your Essential Guide to Dental School Admissions by Publication Date: 2018-03-27
Narrative Medicine: Books
These books highlight narratives in clinical practice, research, and education as a way to deepen your understanding.
The Beauty in Breaking by
An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself. A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Times Notable Book "Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring." -The New York Times Book Review As seen/heard on Fresh Air, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Weekend Edition, and more An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself. Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn't move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman. In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken-physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process. The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper's journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky- How to tell the truth when it's simpler to overlook it. How to understand that compassion isn't the same as justice. As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.
ISBN: 9780525537380Publication Date: 2020-07-07
Chasing My Cure by
LOS ANGELES TIMES AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER * The powerful memoir of a young doctor and former college athlete diagnosed with a rare disease who spearheaded the search for a cure--and became a champion for a new approach to medical research. "A wonderful and moving chronicle of a doctor's relentless pursuit, this book serves both patients and physicians in demystifying the science that lies behind medicine."--Siddhartha Mukherjee, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene David Fajgenbaum, a former Georgetown quarterback, was nicknamed the Beast in medical school, where he was also known for his unmatched mental stamina. But things changed dramatically when he began suffering from inexplicable fatigue. In a matter of weeks, his organs were failing and he was read his last rites. Doctors were baffled by his condition, which they had yet to even diagnose. Floating in and out of consciousness, Fajgenbaum prayed for a second chance, the equivalent of a dramatic play to second the game into overtime. Miraculously, Fajgenbaum survived--only to endure repeated near-death relapses from what would eventually be identified as a form of Castleman disease, an extremely deadly and rare condition that acts like a cross between cancer and an autoimmune disorder. When he relapsed while on the only drug in development and realized that the medical community was unlikely to make progress in time to save his life, Fajgenbaum turned his desperate hope for a cure into concrete action: Between hospitalizations he studied his own charts and tested his own blood samples, looking for clues that could unlock a new treatment. With the help of family, friends, and mentors, he also reached out to other Castleman disease patients and physicians, and eventually came up with an ambitious plan to crowdsource the most promising research questions and recruit world-class researchers to tackle them. Instead of waiting for the scientific stars to align, he would attempt to align them himself. More than five years later and now married to his college sweetheart, Fajgenbaum has seen his hard work pay off: A treatment he identified has induced a tentative remission and his novel approach to collaborative scientific inquiry has become a blueprint for advancing rare disease research. His incredible story demonstrates the potency of hope, and what can happen when the forces of determination, love, family, faith, and serendipity collide. Praise for Chasing My Cure "A page-turning chronicle of living, nearly dying, and discovering what it really means to be invincible in hope."--Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit "[A] remarkable memoir . . . Fajgenbaum writes lucidly and movingly . . . Fajgenbaum's stirring account of his illness will inspire readers."--Publishers Weekly
ISBN: 9781524799618Publication Date: 2019-09-10
Every Patient Tells a Story by
This work presents an unflinching look inside the detective story that marks nearly every illness - the diagnosis - revealing the combination of uncertainty and intrigue that doctors face when confronting patients who are sick or dying.
ISBN: 9780767922463Publication Date: 2009-08-11
Finding Grace on a Less Traveled Road by
During the 1960s, R. Elliot Willis grew up poor and gifted in one of Chicago's toughest inner city neighborhoods. Along with his parents and his nine brothers and sisters, Willis struggled to find hope in the midst of despair, believing that someday he would emerge triumphant from his downtrodden past. Finding Grace on a Less Traveled Road is an inspirational and unforgettable story of one African American's determination and personal triumph against the odds. Willis vividly describes his passage from a traumatic childhood filled with dreams of becoming a doctor to his medical school education at St. Louis's Washington University School of Medicine and a thriving medical career. Facing overwhelming disadvantages, Willis, endowed with exceptional talent and openhearted compassion, more than overcame the misery of neglected human potential. He was a significant contributor in AIDS research during the onset of the epidemic and then went on to have a successful career treating cancer. But at the heart of his work is Willis's profound need to alleviate the suffering of other human beings and to understand the true meaning of living and dying. Poignant and inspiring, this powerful memoir showcases Willis's triumphant victory over poverty and misfortune and reveals how he has served his fellow mankind with remarkable grace and humility.
ISBN: 9781440111280Publication Date: 2008-12-01
Five Days at Memorial by
One of the New York Times's Best Ten Books of the Year Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Winner of the 2014 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Ridenhour Book Prize, the 2014 American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award (Public/Healthcare Consumers), a 2014 Science in Society Journalism Award, and the SIBA 2014 Book Award for Nonfiction An ALA Notable Book, finalist for the NYPL 2014 Helen Bernstein Award, shortlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award and the ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal An NPR "Great Reads" Book, a Chicago Tribune Best Book, a Seattle Times Best Book, a Time Magazine Best Book, Entertainment Weekly's #1 Nonfiction Book, a Christian Science Monitor Best Book, and a Kansas City Star Best Book Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink's landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina - and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. In the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing. In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters--and how we can do better. A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis.
ISBN: 9780307718969Publication Date: 2013-09-10
Hot Lights, Cold Steel by
When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents Collins feels inadequate and unprepared. All too soon, the euphoria of beginning his career as an orthopedic resident gives way to the feelinghe is a counterfeit, an imposter who has infiltrated a society of brilliant surgeons.This story of Collins' four-year surgical residency traces his rise from an eager but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident in his final year. With unparalleled humor, he recounts the disparity between people's perceptions of a doctor's glamorous life and the real thing: a succession of run down cars that are towed to the junk yard, long weekends moonlighting at rural hospitals, a family that grows larger every year, and a laughable income.Collins' good nature helps him over some of the rough spots but cannot spare him the harsh reality of a doctor's life. Every day he is confronted with decisions that will change people's lives-or end them-forever. A young boy's leg is mangled by a tractor: risk the boy's life to save his leg, or amputate immediately? A woman diagnosed with bone cancer injures her hip: go through a painful hip operation even though she has only months to live? Like a jolt to the system, he is faced with the reality of suffering and death as he struggles to reconcile his idealism and aspiration to heal with the recognition of his own limitations and imperfections.Unflinching and deeply engaging, Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a humane and passionate reminder that doctors are people too. This is a gripping memoir, at times devastating, others triumphant, but always compulsively readable.
ISBN: 9780312337780Publication Date: 2005-02-01
The Intern Blues by
While supervising a small group of interns at a major New York medical center, Dr. Robert Marion asked three of them to keep a careful diary over the course of a year. Andy, Mark, and Amy vividly describe their real-life lessons in treating very sick children; confronting child abuse and the awful human impact of the AIDS epidemic; skirting the indifference of the hospital bureaucracy; and overcoming their own fears, insecurities, and constant fatigue. Their stories are harrowing and often funny; their personal triumph is unforgettable. This updated edition of The Intern Blues includes a new preface from the author discussing the status of medical training in America today and a new afterword updating the reader on the lives of the three young interns who first shared their stories with readers more than a decade ago.
ISBN: 9780060937096Publication Date: 2001-08-21
The Long Fix by
Beyond the outrageous expense, the quality of care varies wildly, and millions of Americans can't get care when they need it. This is bad for patients, bad for doctors, and bad for business.In The Long Fix, physician and health care CEO Vivian S. Lee, MD, cuts to the heart of the health care crisis. The problem with the way medicine is practiced, she explains, is not so much who's paying, it's what we are paying for. Insurers, employers, the government, and individuals pay for every procedure, prescription, and lab test, whether or not it makes us better--and that is both backward and dangerous.Dr. Lee proposes turning the way we receive care completely inside out. When doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are paid to keep people healthy, care improves and costs decrease. Lee shares inspiring examples of how this has been done, from physicians' practices that prioritize preventative care, to hospitals that adapt lessons from manufacturing plants to make them safer, to health care organizations that share online how much care costs and how well each physician is caring for patients.Using clear and compelling language, Dr. Lee paints a picture that is both realistic and optimistic. It may not be a quick fix, but her concrete action plan for reform--for employers and other payers, patients, clinicians, and policy makers--can reinvent health care, and create a less costly, more efficient, and healthier system for all.
ISBN: 9781324006671Publication Date: 2020-05-26
On Call by
"On Call" begins with a newly-minted doctor checking in for her first day of residency--wearing the long white coat of an MD and being called "Doctor" for the first time. Having studied at Yale and Dartmouth, Dr. Emily Transue arrives in Seattle to start her internship in Internal Medicine just after graduating from medical school. This series of loosely interconnected scenes from the author's medical training concludes her residency three years later. During her first week as a student on the medical wards, Dr. Transue watched someone come into the emergency room in cardiac arrest and die. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before-it was a long way from books and labs. So she began to record her experiences as she gained confidence putting her book knowledge to work. The stories focus on the patients Dr. Transue encountered in the hospital, ER and clinic; some are funny and others tragic. They range in scope from brief interactions in the clinic to prolonged relationships during hospitalization. There is a man newly diagnosed with lung cancer who is lyrical about his life on a sunny island far away, and a woman, just released from a breathing machine after nearly dying, who sits up and demands a cup of coffee. Though the book has a great deal of medical content, the focus is more on the stories of the patients' lives and illnesses and the relationships that developed between the patients and the author, and the way both parties grew in the course of these experiences. Along the way, the book describes the life of a resident physician and reflects on the way the medical system treats both its patients and doctors. "On Call" provides a window into the experience of patients at critical junctures in life and into the author's own experience as a new member of the medical profession.
ISBN: 9780312324834Publication Date: 2004-08-01
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by
This funny, candid memoir about the author's intern year at a New York hospital provides a scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, taking readers into the critical-care unit to see one burgeoning physician's journey from ineptitude to competence. After his professional baseball career failed to launch, Matt McCarthy went to Harvard Medical School and onto a coveted residency slot in New York. But when he almost lost a patient on his first day after making what he believed to be a terrible error, he found himself facing the harsh reality of a new doctor's life--one in which even overachievers find themselves humbled, and in which med school training has little to offer in navigating the emotional roller-coaster of dealing with actual patients. Luckily for McCarthy, his second-year-resident adviser (whom he calls "Baio," owing to a resemblance to Charles in Charge-era Scott Baio) was an offbeat genius with a knack for breaking down the complicated process of treating patients. But neither doctor could offer much help to a patient named Barney, who had been living in the hospital while waiting for a new heart, and with whom McCarthy slowly befriended over the course of the year in ways that changed his perception of what it means to be a physician. Mixing the tense drama of ER with the screwball humor of Scrubs, McCarthy offers a window into hospital life that dispenses with sanctimony and self-seriousness while emphasizing the black-comic paradox of becoming a doctor- How do you learn how to save lives in a job where there is no practice? This One L for doctors will inspire and entertain physicians and patients alike.
ISBN: 9780804138673Publication Date: 2016-04-05
The Soul of a Doctor by
By the time most of us meet our doctors, they've been in practice for a number of years. Often they seem aloof, uncaring, and hurried. Of course, they're not all like that, and most didn't start out that way. Here are voices of third-year students just as they begin to take on clinical responsibilities. Their words focus on the odd transition students face when they must deal with real people in real time and in real crises and when they must learn to put aside their emotions to make quick, accurate, and sensitive decisions. Their decisions aren't always right, and the consequences can be life-altering--for all involved. Moving, disturbing, and candid, their true stories show us a side of the profession that few ever see, or could even imagine. They show, often painfully, how medical students grow up, right at the bedside.
ISBN: 9781565125070Publication Date: 2006-06-02
This Won't Hurt a Bit by
Michelle Au started medical school armed only with a surfeit of idealism, a handful of old 'ER' episodes to reference, and some vague notion about 'helping people'. This is the story of how she grew up and became a real doctor. Through her years in medical training, she also attempts to maintain a life outside the hospital as she and her resident husband decide to have a baby. A new mother struggling to balance long days and nights in the hospital with her 'real' life, Au finds herself in the classic struggle of working motherhood, trying to do two equally high-stress jobs without losing her sanity or sense of humour. THIS WON'T HURT A BIT is a story about the imperfect, occasionally ridiculous, never boring process of medical training and life outside it, where an ordinary person can learn the kind of doctor and mother she wants to be under the most extraordinary circumstances.
ISBN: 9780446538244Publication Date: 2011-05-11
When Breath Becomes Air by
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away? Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.
ISBN: 1784701998Publication Date: 2017
The White Coat Investor by
Written by a practicing emergency physician, The White Coat Investor is a high-yield manual that specifically deals with the financial issues facing medical students, residents, physicians, dentists, and similar high-income professionals. Doctors are highly-educated and extensively trained at making difficult diagnoses and performing life saving procedures. However, they receive little to no training in business, personal finance, investing, insurance, taxes, estate planning, and asset protection. This book fills in the gaps and will teach you to use your high income to escape from your student loans, provide for your family, build wealth, and stop getting ripped off by unscrupulous financial professionals. Straight talk and clear explanations allow the book to be easily digested by a novice to the subject matter yet the book also contains advanced concepts specific to physicians you won't find in other financial books.This book will teach you how to: Graduate from medical school with as little debt as possibleEscape from student loans within two to five years of residency graduationPurchase the right types and amounts of insuranceDecide when to buy a house and how much to spend on itLearn to invest in a sensible, low-cost and effective manner with or without the assistance of an advisorAvoid investments which are designed to be sold, not boughtSelect advisors who give great service and advice at a fair priceBecome a millionaire within five to ten years of residency graduationUse a "Backdoor Roth IRA" and "Stealth IRA" to boost your retirement funds and decrease your taxesProtect your hard-won assets from professional and personal lawsuitsAvoid estate taxes, avoid probate, and ensure your children and your money go where you want when you dieMinimize your tax burden, keeping more of your hard-earned moneyDecide between an employee job and an independent contractor jobChoose between sole proprietorship, Limited Liability Company, S Corporation, and C CorporationTake a look at the first pages of the book by clicking on the Look Inside feature Praise For The White Coat Investor "Much of my financial planning practice is helping doctors to correct mistakes that reading this book would have avoided in the first place." - Allan S. Roth, MBA, CPA, CFP(R), Author of How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street "Jim Dahle has done a lot of thinking about the peculiar financial problems facing physicians, and you, lucky reader, are about to reap the bounty of both his experience and his research." - William J. Bernstein, MD, Author of The Investor's Manifesto and seven other investing books "This book should be in every career counselor's office and delivered with every medical degree." - Rick Van Ness, Author of Common Sense Investing "The White Coat Investor provides an expert consult for your finances. I now feel confident I can be a millionaire at 40 without feeling like a jerk." - Joe Jones, DO "Jim Dahle has done for physician financial illiteracy what penicillin did for neurosyphilis." - Dennis Bethel, MD "An excellent practical personal finance guide for physicians in training and in practice from a non biased source we can actually trust." - Greg E Wilde, M.D Scroll up, click the buy button, and get started today
ISBN: 9780991433100Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Personal Development
These books were selected to highlight insights about keeping perspective as you pursue a career in health.
The Brain That Changes Itself by
"Fascinating. Doidge's book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain."--Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge's inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and more An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they've transformed--people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.
ISBN: 9780143113102Publication Date: 2007-12-18
How to Be Alive by
"This is the book where self-help turns into helping the world--and then turns back into helping yourself find a better life. Fascinating and timely!"--Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet What does it take to achieve a successful and satisfying life? Not long ago, the answer seemed as simple as following a straightforward path: college, career, house, marriage, kids, and a secure retirement. Not anymore. Staggering student loan debt, sweeping job shortages, a chronically ailing economy--plus the larger issues of global unrest, poverty, and our imperiled environment--make the search for fulfillment more challenging. And, as Colin Beavan, activist and author of No Impact Man, proclaims, more exciting. In this breakthrough book, Beavan extends a hand to those seeking more meaning and joy in life even as they engage in addressing our various world crises. How to Be Alive nudges the unfulfilled toward creating their own version of the Good Life--a life where feeling good and doing good intersect. He urges readers to reexamine the "standard life approaches" to pretty much everything and to experiment with life choices that are truer to their values, passions, and concerns. How do you stop placing limits on your potential impact? How do you make your choices really matter in everything from your clothing purchases to your career? How do you find the people who will most support you in your quest for a good life? To answer these questions and more, Beavan draws on classic literature and philosophy; surprising new scientific findings; and the uplifting personal stories of real-life "lifequesters"--people who are breaking away from those old broken paths, blazing fresh trails, and reveling in every step along the way. "There is a movement afoot for a better life and Colin Beavan is its prophet, with a new book as powerful as his already classic No Impact Man."--John de Graaf, coauthor of Affluenza
ISBN: 9780062236708Publication Date: 2016-01-05
Career Guides
Career Guides
Occupational Outlook Handbook
- Occupational Outlook HandbookProduced by the U.S. Department of Labor, the website has information about median pay, growth rate, number of jobs, educational requirements, and more.
Recommended Resources
Pre-Health Databases
- PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
This database offers full-text articles for journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association and Hogrefe & Huber, including all material from the print journals going as far back as to volume 1, issue 1.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
This database is published by the American Psychological Associations and provides comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature from the 1800s to the present. Documents indexed include journals, articles, books, dissertations and more. 90% of the 3,000+ titles indexed in APA PsycINFO® are peer-reviewed.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowPubMed is a free resource supporting the search and retrieval of biomedical and life sciences literature with the aim of improving health–both globally and personally. The PubMed database contains more than 33 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowWeb of Science is a research database that allows users to find, analyze, and share information in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
