This Is Going to Hurt

This Is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay

Working as a junior doctor in Britain’s National Health Service meant long hours, enormous responsibility, impossible pressures and moments of extraordinary humanity. Adam Kay kept a diary throughout his years as a doctor in training, recording the absurd, heartbreaking and hilarious moments of his working life. Years later, after leaving medicine, he turned those diaries into This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor.

The book follows Kay’s journey through his training and work in obstetrics and gynecology, from delivering babies and dealing with emergencies to handling bizarre requests from patients and coping with exhausting night shifts. Many entries are laugh-out-loud funny, filled with sharp observations and unexpected situations, while others reveal the toll the job takes on doctors’ health, relationships and personal lives.

Alongside the humor, Kay highlights the challenges facing the health service and its staff, including understaffing, long hours and the emotional burden of making life-and-death decisions. The final chapters describe the events that led him to leave medicine, offering a moving and powerful conclusion.

The book became a huge bestseller and was adapted into a television series.

Hilarious, shocking and deeply moving, This Is Going to Hurt is a must-read for anyone interested in medicine, health care or the realities behind hospital doors. It contains strong language, graphic medical details and difficult themes, and is best suited for adult readers.