Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer

Watts M.D., David

ISBN 10: 1400080517 / ISBN 13: 9781400080519

Published by Harmony, 2005

About this Item

Gently read. May have name of previous ownership, or ex-library edition. Binding tight; spine straight and smooth, with no creasing; covers clean and crisp. Minimal signs of handling or shelving. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item! Ships USPS Media Mail.

Seller Inventory # OTV.1400080517.VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer
• Publisher: Harmony
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1400080517
• ISBN 13: 9781400080519
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

In beautifully crafted vignettes, physician and NPR commentator David Watts explores the world of modern-day medicine and reveals the emotional truths and practical realities at the heart of the doctor-patient relationship. Bedside Manners is an engaging, often surprising investigation into what happens when we sit down and talk openly about vital issues of health and mortality.

Combining the grace and precision of a poet with the down-to-earth, compassionate manner of a doctor who deals with the problems of real people every day, Watts describes situations both odd and touching: the patient who stays awake during an endoscopy to ward off demons; the woman who recites poetry to get through a frightening treatment; the man who arrives at Watts’s office bearing Internet research on syndromes that have little to do with his own condition; and the seventy-four-year-old architect who faces a tough cancer diagnosis with dignity and courage.

Readers will come away from these tales of difficult diagnoses, irreverent colleagues, brave survivors, and examining-room poseurs sharing Watts’s own sense of humbled astonishment. As he tells each story, Watts closes for the reader the protective distance many doctors employ, and touches all of us who have felt vulnerable in the position of patient. Refreshing, wry, and reassuring, Bedside Manners holds important lessons for both healers and those who seek their help.

About the Author

David Watts, M.D., is a poet and a regular commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered. He has published three books of poetry and organized the Writing the Medical Experience workshops at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and at Sarah Lawrence College. He lives in Mill Valley, California.