Vital Signs: Heartbreaking, Sometimes Hilarious Stories from A Junior Doctor's First Year

<p><b>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.</b><p>Diagnosis and death; uncertainty and urgent laxatives; sleep deprivation and synthetic drawstring trousers: this debut work by Izzy Lomax-Sawyers chronicles her first year as a tired junior doctor at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.<p>How can Izzy be a thorough and compassionate doctor while still leaving work before 7 p.m.? How does she uphold dignity and autonomy for people whose liberty has been taken because of severe mental illness? How will she know when what <i>can</i> be done for a critically ill patient is different from what <i>should</i> be done? And is this floor clean enough for her to sleep on?<p>Izzy grapples with these questions and more as she rotates through psychiatry, orthopaedics, medicine and surgery.<p>Thoughtful, funny and at times heartbreaking, <i>Vital Signs</i> invites readers to join Izzy through the highs and lows of being an apprentice in the art and science of medicine. Get your scrubs on, chug your coffee; ward rounds start at 6.45.