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Attending Children A Doctor's Education

Name: Attending Children A Doctor's Education
Author: Margaret E. Mohrmann
ISBN: 9781589010543

by Margaret E. Mohrmann

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Overview

In a fast-paced, complicated, and evermore dangerous world, it is easy to become self-absorbed and consumed with our own problems. There is one place, however, where we put our self-centered concerns aside, and our deep, common humanity is profoundly touched. That place is where sick children dwell.

It is no less difficult- and perhaps even more difficult in many ways- for physicians who have chosen to attend to the health and well-being of gravely ill or dying children. Margaret Mohrmann has devoted most of her professional life to them, and in Attending Children she shares the remarkable education those children and their families have given her. Her narratives are painful and hopeful, tragic and funny, full of remarkable characters and sometimes bizarre families.

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Editorials

Reviewer: Douglas Moodie, MD(Ochsner Clinic Foundation)
Description: This is a narrative by Dr. Margaret Mohrmann, a pediatrician for 30 years, describing her involvement with children who are seriously ill and their families. Dr. Mohrmann is exceptionally qualified to write this book because she is also Professor of Religious Studies and Medical Education at the University of Virginia. This is a unique experience over an entire physician's lifetime of attending, listening, accompanying, and waiting as she deals with all the issues surrounding children who are ill and their families under great stress and emotional upheaval.
Purpose: The purpose is to portray one physician's journey through 30 years of caring for sick children and dealing with those children and their families. These are certainly worthy objectives and the book provides a personalized look at physiologic and human issues in pediatric care. The book certainly meets the author's goals of accomplishing a narrative of caring and concern for children and their families.
Audience: The audience is pediatric health professionals, medical students, and anyone in medicine and nursing who interacts with very sick children.
Features: The book has a large number of clinical vignettes, described by the titles of the chapters, relating to patient issues such as waiting, listening, letting go, power and powerlessness. These major themes are illustrated by individual personal patient encounters.
Assessment: This is a unique book, and a very personalized one, about dealing with children and families and is wonderful in its compassion. It is full of human insights.

3 Stars from Doody