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For the over 60 healthcare providers who contributed essays, poems, and short stories to the new book, Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine (publishing on March 24, 2026), putting words on paper is not only a way to process the day-to-day challenges of this work; it’s a way to heal.
The anthology, which features the universal experience of private doubts and painful failures among healthcare professionals, as well as the victories and triumphs that accompany this deeply heart-rending work, was culled from the archives of Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, a literary journal recognized as a leader in the medical humanities.
“There are stories in the book that will be highly relatable to readers in the healthcare field, no matter what area of medicine they’re in,” said Donna Bulseco, editor of Intima and the book’s editor.
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Medscape continually surveys physicians and other medical professionals about key practice challenges and current issues, creating high-impact analyses. For example, Medscape’s UK Doctors and Life After Medicine Report found that:
- 2 out of 3 doctors surveyed said they expect to lose part of their identity after leaving medicine.
- 1 in 5 expect to feel sad upon exiting their medical career.
- 30% were very confident they would lead a rewarding life after medicine.
When asked to choose a few favorite essays from the book, Bulseco, who holds a graduate degree in narrative medicine from Columbia University, New York City, pointed to Harvest, an essay written by William Bachman, MD, a cardiologist who has been in clinical practice for 27 years, about being a third-year medical student and experiencing his first ever procurement of the kidneys needed for a transplant.
Another story Bulseco recommended is Things I Learned from Pole Dancing That I Did Not Learn from Residency. In this piece, author Elise Mullan, MD, now a neurologist, wrote about being a resident under pressure and how she coped with that relatable feeling of wanting to escape. And, in Old Scrubs, Bruce H. Campbell, MD, a retired head and neck surgeon, penned a poignant piece about what it’s like for a long-time surgeon to watch a new generation of doctors come up the ranks in his hospital and push him aside.
Happily, in the last decade, physicians have become more open about sharing their on-the-job experiences in literary form, with such notable examples including Oliver Sacks, Paul Kalanithi, MD, author of When Breath Becomes Air, and Atule Gawande, MD, author of Being Mortal. It is this willingness to share experiences and express them in a literary form that’s the very foundation of narrative medicine.
“It helps physicians to write and to read and see themselves reflected,” Bulseco said. “Writing can provide a balm for healthcare workers and inspire them to keep going.”
What the book isn’t is a prescription for how to be a doctor or do the job of a healthcare professional. Nor is it only for healthcare professionals as the universal messages in the stories will resonate with any reader.
“This isn’t a service-y, ‘here’s how to do this’ job kind of book,” she told Medscape Medical News. “It’s about reading literary works and believing that a well-written piece of writing can change your life because it changes how you look at things.”
Ultimately, Bulseco hopes the book moves readers — and says it is an ideal gift to give someone who is interested in medicine as a career as it offers a glimpse into the deeply human experiences healthcare professionals know intimately.
“A lot of the stories focus on what happens when a medical student or resident goes through this punishing training, feeling like no one understands what they’re going through,” she added.
And, while the anthology isn’t exactly an escape from the day-to-day, the stories are enlightening — and deeply inspiring.
“I want readers to think about how the stories relate to their own personal lives,” Bulseco said. “But I don’t want them to escape their life. I want them to be able to feel deeply.” She said she’s read the stories 10 times now and still cries during a few of them.
Lambeth Hochwald is a New York City-based journalist who covers health, relationships, trends, and issues of importance to women. She’s also a longtime professor at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
