Playing Doctor; Part Three

Who would choose a doctor who has a life long history of falling off his bike and sustaining head injuries? Who would embrace a doc who spent his years of medical training secretly wishing he was in the film industry? Well, I would!

In John Lawrence’s entertaining memoir “Playing Doctor; Part Three: Chief Resident (Tumbling Towards Medical Practice) the reader becomes the fly on the wall observing Lawrence’s final years of training in medical school. We get a glimpse into Urology, Neurology, ER training, Obstetrics, Allergy, Pediatrics, Cardiology, ENT, among other specialties’ that our budding doctor (and his patients) must endure. Everything is funny and harrowing at the same time.

This is the third segment of John’s episodic trek through medical school and earning his M.D. at the University of Utah. Great job, John. Ok, John. Let’s play doctor – for real.
#Netgalley #PlayingDoctor-PartThree, #JohnLawrence #MedicalSchool #Humor

Thank you #Netgalley for this advanced copy!

I have read the first two of the series playing doctor and loved it! Was happy to get an early copy of this latest and possible last section of this series. We of course follow John during his final years of schooling, many stories around his realm of being chief resident. In part three we also learn more about John's personal life, his interest in acting and film making as well as his participation in athletic events. I appreciated the flashbacks throughout that reflect back to previous situations he described in the other books and how they relate to his experiences now. I do hope that John continues to write more books in addition to films. I would love to hear about his progression after school and how he ties his medical background into his interest of entertainment.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is the 3rd book in the series by John Lawrence. I e enjoyed all 3 as he has a great sense of humor and does t hold back with his honesty about his struggles. Some of the stories were really funny, some sad. But most of the book is humorous.
If you like medical memoirs, I recommend this series.

Really enjoyed the first two parts of this author's journey and was delighted to get a copy of this to read and review. It was as good as the first two parts of not better

Excellent, really enjoyed it, his best yet!

I’ve read this author’s previous two ‘doc memoirs’ and really enjoyed them, so couldn’t wait to get cracking on this. Book 3 concerns his final year of residency training.

This contains so many adventures and diverse cases as he goes through the various rotations: Obstetrics, Urology, Emergency Room, Outpatient Paediatrics, Newborn Nursery, Cardiology, and Ear, Nose and Throat.

Often tongue in cheek, humorous, but not always; there’s also some serious stuff in here e.g. the ER chapter; some dramas in there, and he rightly doesn't make light when lives are in the balance.

Lots of different cases and scenarios to other doctor memoirs I've read. It was fresh, fun, informative; yet never insensitive, not silly, no uncomfortable bits.

Is this his best book? Does it deserve 5 stars this time? Yes, definitely.

I enjoyed this book. The pacing is very good and once I started the book, I found it difficult to put down. I enjoyed the use of sarcasm as it provided more insight into Dr. Lawrence’s personality, but I didn’t find this book as humorous as the previous one, with the later book providing no laugh-out-loud moments (disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of the previous book) Nonetheless, this latest book is an enjoyable read and is well worthwhile. Thank you to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the advance reader copy.

As always, I love the tongue-in-cheek humor John Lawrence has had in all of his Playing Doctor books. As an RN, I could relate to so much in all of his books. This is a book for anyone considering Med School or anyone in the medical profession who just wants a bit of humor thrown into their life. Have already told my RN friends to read this.

Wow… loved loved loved the honesty and frankness of being a resident in the healthcare field at this day and age. It was very entertaining and an enjoyable read. You can actually imagine him telling you his stories in person…

Great writing.
John gives us a humorous look into his life as a doctor with plenty of sarcasm thrown in.
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an advanced copy.
Enjoyable and highly recommended read.

This was a very entertaining and engaging book. As a veterinarian who has done advanced training, I can very much relate to the medical mishaps, and how dealing with people is a lot harder than the medicine. This was humorous and yet times educational. The author has a great way of telling the stories with a humble and humorous perspective. The author is eclectic and has a wide range of interests. It is apparent he is a fun guy and someone you'd want to entertain you in times of need (and he'd be a fun character to drink a beer with at a bar). I'm sure his medical skills have progressed beyond where he was as a student and a resident, but we all have to start somewhere and this was a fun reminder of "good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement." A very entertaining and fairly easy read.

I was definitely very excited when I saw this book was coming out. After hearing all about John's experiences in the first two years of residency, I couldn't wait to find out how things ended off in his final year!

If you haven't read the first two books, I highly recommend reading them in order, even though John does a wonderful job catching readers up on things they might have missed or forgotten from the tales earlier in the series. It is definitely possible to read them out of order (I did) but I think reading them in order would have been a nice way to enjoy the journey the way he did; over the course of 7 years and 3 books! Similar to the first two books, this book is divided into months or rotations. Each chapter covers a different medical theme, usually related to a section of medicine, for example: obstetrics, family practice or emergency medicine. I love this set up because it is both theme based and also chronological. It is easy to navigate and feels like you are following the calendar year along with him. Also like the first two books, John uses his sense of humour and his strong teaching skills to write in a way that is both entertaining and informative. You will learn lots about the ins and outs of medicine (and what you do that drives your doctors crazy) while also hearing about the craziest situations and the silliest outcomes. He makes a connection with his readers and reminds them that even some of the most brilliant minds in medicine have no clue what is going on sometimes (though they might not admit it). This book was slightly more repetitive than the other two, mainly because it is the conclusion of the story and he reflects on the journey as a whole. Even with a bit more repetition, I still really enjoyed it and am glad I got to finish off the series.

I would highly recommend this book and the entire 3-part series to anyone who enjoys memoirs and medical stories. John is a hilarious writer who does not take himself too seriously and shares his experiences in a way that is down to earth, self-deprecating, and easy to understand. I'm so glad I got the chance to read this third book and would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review it!

Loved it! John weaves laugh-out-loud moments with heartfelt tales throughout his somewhat atypical, always entertaining, rollicking journey through medical training... Such a well crafted novel, compelling enough to pull you through and very quick read. I enjoyed it so much from the first page till the end.

John Lawrence’s experiences as Chief Resident are detailed in Playing Doctor; Part Three, the third in the series detailing his march to medical competency.

Lawrence handles the stresses, frustration and sleep deprivation of physician training with humor. He’s funny, politically incorrect but determined to provide the best care to his patients. Of course, there are those like the drug seekers and the middle of the night phone callers whom he doesn’t think need that help. His anecdotes are funny and provide a different, behind-the-scenes look at the business of medicine.

I have not yet read the first two in the series but have added them to the top of my TBR list. And I can't wait to see what comes next - Playing Doctor, the TV years? 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and John Lawrence for this ARC.

Dr. John Lawrence is a real physician who has written three books about his journey as a family medicine resident.This one is the last in the series and it chronicles his third and final year, when he is Chief Resident.

While I have not read Part One and Part Two, they are now on my Interesting Books list. It is not necessary to have read the earlier books to heartily enjoy this one, which I definitely did. While Dr. Lawrence tries to present himself as a doubting bumbler, what emerges from the many vignettes he reports of his experiences as Chief Resident, what emerges is a portrait of a caring, compassionate physician, who learns by doing and learns by teaching. Anyone who has him as their physician is in very good hands.

Part amusing, part poignant, part painful to read as he sometimes struggles to learn his craft, Playing Doctor Part 3 is a an excellent insight into a physician’ s last year of training in his specialty, and a book I am very glad that I read. Everyone who trains for a career is bound to doubt themselves as they fumble through their training, and, as Dr. Lawrence reveals, at the end of the training, we are truly ready to set forth on our own.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

I absolutely LOVED this book! I read this without having read his previous two books and didn't feel that I had missed anything by reading them out of order. In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I went and got books 1 and 2 as well.

This is a candidly honest look at what it takes to become a doctor, the doubts and trials, the mistakes and triumphs. It was written in such a way as to make the reader feel like they were part of a conversation with a friend, instead of a third party.

My thanks to NetGalley and Booksgosocial for a copy of “ Playing Doctor.Part 3 “ for an honest review.

I hadn’t read the first 2 books in this series , but that didn’t stop me enjoying this.
I like reading about experiences from other people’s professions and this was told with humour , truth and honesty.
This has whetted my appetite to read the previous books by John Lawrence.

I really enjoyed reading this book about a young doctor's third year as an intern/resident. Now I need to go find the first two books!

He can't decide if he really wants to be a doctor or to be an actor/writer. And, of course, he has lots and lots of medical debt!

John also seems to have a rather large amount of low esteem regarding his capabilities as a doctor. But read on, by the end of the book has starts feeling better about his abilities.

Some of the stories are really funny, some are really sad and some I found myself getting angry (on his behalf) about the patients he has to deal with.

I really enjoyed John Lawrence's voice in this novel, I went in to this not reading any of his previous work and had a great time. I related to his anxieties of work and it really opened up my view on working in healthcare. I couldn't imagine being a doctor as he really made me feel his anxiety and all the pressure that was put on him.

If I was so describe this book I would say it's like if you did a character study on a Grey's Anatomy character but it was all true.