Bedside Reading

Send us Fan MailI loved talking to London GP Eugenia Lee about Everything Everything  by Nicola Yoon,In this fabulous YA novel we meet Madeline Whitter who spends her whole life inside a bubble, with her mother.  Madeline has a rare immune deficiency and cannot remember ever leaving her home.  Shortly after Madeleine’s 18th birthday, a new family moves in next door. A young and seemingly depressed teenage girl, a violent and alcoholic father, a weak and incapable mother but most importantly a boy who is wild, clever and very good looking. A few weeks pass and Madeline starts to learn more and more about the family as she watches them from her bedroom window. Ollie, the boy next door, starts to talk too Madeline over IM. They grow closer and closer but the fact that Madeline is severely ill prevents them from being together.We talk about adolescent health, fabricated and induced illness, communicating with teenagers.This is a wonderful short novel, easy to read, immediately engaging which really packs a punch. The RCPCH guidelines on perplexing presentations and FII can be found here:https://childprotection.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/perplexing-presentations-and-fii/If you are interested in mentoring with SMF sign up here: https://www.socialmobility.org.uk/get-involved/professionals/ways-to-get-involved/

Send us Fan MailWelcome to Season 5 - I'm so excited!! 85 episodes, 4 seasons complete and now it's time for season 5.  I'm joined today by `Nuthana Bhayankaram, Vice President of the Medical Women's Federation and host of their podcast.  We are talking about Nuthana's favourite novel: Pride and Prejudice and I have to confess it's the very first time on this podcast that I've not managed to finish the book before the interview (I did finish it the next week actually!)We talk about "failure" to finish a novel, whether Pride and Prejudice is like Marmite (or Center Parcs) sexism, aspiration, ambition and why Elizabeth Bennett is a trail blazing hero...Follow Nuthana on Twitter https://twitter.com/DrNuthanaFind the MWF podcast here:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-medical-women-podcast/id1606795048

Send us Fan MailA cracking novel to finish season 4. This is a book about community, about values, ambition, and also about hockey (but do not let that put you off if you aren't into sport).  It's the first in a trilogy by the brilliant Fredrik Backman and is pretty much unputdownable.Francesca  Boffey and I have incredibly overlapping taste in books and it's taken us such a long time to pick which book would be "the one" to discuss on Bedside Reading. I'm hoping she might come back again to discuss another one in future. We talk about community, small town mentality, toxic masculinity, what defines success,  who we believe, control, friendship, what people give up for others, retirement, identity, doing the right thing... There's an almost endless source of CPD discussion here and we struggled not to talk for hours.We mentioned the Royal College of Surgeons' publication on Sexual Assault in Surgery which you can access here:  https://publishing.rcseng.ac.uk/doi/epdf/10.1308/rcsbull.2021.106As well as this article from The Times in April 2023:  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sexism-surgeons-royal-college-times-health-commission-039q7fx6c#:~:text=Roshana%20Mehdian%2DStaffell%2C%2037%2C%20an%20orthopaedic%20surgeon%2C%20highlighted,her%20feel%20%E2%80%9Cextremely%20uncomfortable%E2%80%9D.

Send us Fan MailIt's a big "welcome back!!" this week to Charley Baker, Associate Professor of Mental Health at The University of Nottingham and self confessed "book pusher".We're talking about a fabulous collection of short stories titled Cat Brushing written by retired Psychotherapist Jane Campbell.We talk about the invisibility of older women, taboo subjects, the darkness of imagination and why short stories are the perfect way to get back into reading if for some reason your concentration isn't what it might be

Send us Fan MailA lone astronaut.An impossible mission.An ally he never imagined.Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery-and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.Or does he?It was great fun this week to record with Mark Shapiro,  host of the pheomenonally successful podcast Explore the Space https://www.explorethespaceshow.com/ which has a mission of "Examining the interface between healthcare & society, with thought leaders from across the spectrum."This was one of the first Sci-Fi genre novels I've ever picked up and I admit I was well out of my comfort zone with a lot of the theoretical physics (which Mark tells me I don't need to understand, just believe).  Project Hail Mary is at its heart a book about connection and about the value of saving our planet, and humanity.  I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation about the amazing community of practice that is #MedTwitter, the joy of reading, accidental CPD, equity, climate change and so much more.Follow Mark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ETSshow

Send us Fan MailNancy Kline's Time to Think is probably the non fiction book which has most changed my clinical and teaching/mentoring practice ever. It was a huge treat to discuss it with Martin Billington and to discover it had had a similar effect on him.Focussing on the principles that "The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first. The quality of our thinking depends on the way we treat each other while we are thinking" has change both of us for the better (though we did acknowledge that if we both listened intently and didn't say anything the podcast wouldn't be the most interesting thing to listen to!)

Send us Fan MailThe Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman's Heartstopper graphic novels was the highlight of my TV watching year last year and I was so delighted to realise they were based on a wonderful series of graphic novels. This winter is a tiny novella which packs a punch and has some of the most powerful "voice of the young person" writing I've encountered in a long while. In a special episode for Pride month I'm delighted to welcome GP ST3 Ellie Corso to talk about adolescents, eating disorders, scaffolding and so much more.I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.If you are looking for some resources to support a patient, a friend, a relative or yourself with an eating disorder the RCPsych have a great section here https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/members/your-faculties/eating-disorders-psychiatryThere's also NICE CKS https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/eating-disorders/The RCGP have an elearning module here: https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/info.php?id=173we also recommend the national eating disorders charity BEAT  https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/Locally to where I work we have the superb charity First Steps whose website is a mine of resources even if you aren't fortunate enough to be in Derbyshire https://firststepsed.co.uk/

Send us Fan MailThis episode was planned anyway but it feels only right to share during Pride Month as part of the importance of us all reflecting on LGBTQI+ themes and healthThis Child of Ours  by Sadie Pearce was suggested to us by the parent of a trans child who had found the novel really reflective of their own experiences. Sadly this medical parent felt unable to breach their child's confidentiality by discussing it themselves.  Ana and I were really honoured to have the recommender's thoughts and reflections based on their lived experiences to consider as we read the novel.Follow Ana on Twitter https://twitter.com/alwaddingtonThe RCPCH response to the current situation around access to gender affirming therapy/support for young people is a really helpful starting point: https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/news/rcpch-statement-ruling-judicial-review-bell-v-tavistock

Send us Fan MailDescribed in a review as: 'An honest, brave and much needed account of what it feels like to live with severe social anxiety. Having a male writer dealing so openly with topics like social anxiety, shyness, introversion and sensitivity is sadly all too rare and makes this book all the more of a triumph.'  by Tom Falkenstein, Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist & author of The Highly Sensitive Man, Redface is Russell Norris'account of how he learned to live with his social anxiety and extreme blushing. Shining a light into the deeper, darker corners of someone's brain as they reflect honestly on some very difficult times, maladaptive coping mechanisms and searches for cures Redface takes us along Russell's journey with him.I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Russell and am sure his book will be a regular bibliotherapy title for me to share with others. Follow Russell on twitter: https://twitter.com/Ruzz_Norris

Send us Fan MailWe tend to surround ourselves with people we identify with, in appearance, beliefs and perspective. This subconscious habit, known as homophily, occurs because it’s validating to have our own ideas reflected back to us by the people around us, whether it’s friends, family or colleagues. But the truth is that homophily significantly inhibits the success of a team.It was a treat to get to discuss Matthew Syed's brilliant book with James Thambyrajah and to think about why it's so relevant to us in healthcare working in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment so much of the time