The 12 Labours of Hippocrates

Since becoming a Junior Doctor, I have been given so much material on a daily basis to write about. Days and nights in hospital are teeming with life, meaning, joy and sadness. So much of what it is to be human is played out in these corridors at an intensity that is very hard to describe to those who do not experience it firsthand. Rarely a day goes by where some profound truth about human nature or oneself is revealed through either incredible or tragic experience. The uncertainties of ill health, the joy of helping someone recover, the deafeningly silence when news is received that was not expected. Then there are the interactions between professional and patient, colleague and colleague. These for me are endlessly fascinating, observing in others (and myself) how we all cope with the relentless and often unforgiving, ever shifting sands of hospital life. Set in the format of a medical admissions booklet, this collection looks to explore the various challenges for both doctor and patient alike.