Postmortem: The Doctor Who Walked Away

by Maria Phalime

Overview

"This is my story and the stories of other doctors who chose to walk away. Ours is a private anguish filled with the niggling suspicion that we should have been stronger, more committed, more able to handle the daily realities of practising medicine in South Africa." As a young medical student from Soweto, Maria Phalime had high expectations for life as a doctor. Then she started to practise and was confronted with inhuman hours, overflowing emergency rooms, poor resources and little support. After nine years of study and four years practising, she hung up her stethoscope, turning her back on a long-cherished dream. As she goes in search of answers, she speaks to other doctors who gave up medicine and uncovers common issues ailing the health sector. A moving personal account that exposes the pressures that come with being a doctor in South Africa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780624057611
Publisher:	Tafelberg
Publication date:	04/20/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	906 KB

About the Author

Maria Phalime completed the Get Smarter/Random House Struik Nonfiction Story Course under acclaimed author Mike Nicol. In 2013 her novel for teens, Second Chances, was the English language category winner of the Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards. She is the recipient of the inaugural City Press Tafelberg Nonfiction Award. This award sponsors authors to research and write a work of nonfiction. It is granted annually and promotes nonfiction writing on subjects of significance to South African society. Born and raised in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, Maria moved to Cape Town in 1991 to pursue her studies at the University of Cape Town, from which she graduated with degrees in Science and Medicine. She worked as a general practitioner in South Africa and the United Kingdom, before leaving medical practice to pursue non-clinical interests. In 2010 she found her voice as a writer.

Read an Excerpt

"This is my story and the stories of other doctors who chose to walk away. Ours is a private anguish filled with the niggling suspicion that we should have been stronger, more committed, more able to handle the daily realities of practising medicine in South Africa."

As a young medical student from Soweto, Maria Phalime had high expectations for life as a doctor. Then she started to practise and was confronted with inhuman hours, overflowing emergency rooms, poor resources and little support.

After nine years of study and four years practising, she hung up her stethoscope, turning her back on a long-cherished dream. As she goes in search of answers, she speaks to other doctors who gave up medicine and uncovers common issues ailing the health sector.

A moving personal account that exposes the pressures that come with being a doctor in South Africa.