• This Is Going to Hurt

  • Secret Diaries of a Young Doctor
  • By: Adam Kay
  • Narrated by: Adam Kay
  • Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (605 ratings)

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This Is Going to Hurt  By  cover art

This Is Going to Hurt

By: Adam Kay
Narrated by: Adam Kay
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Publisher's summary

Now an AMC+ series starring Ben Whishaw

The acclaimed multimillion-copy bestseller, This Is Going to Hurt is Adam Kay’s equally "blisteringly funny" (Boston Globe) and “heartbreaking” (New Yorker) secret diaries of his years as a young doctor.

Welcome to 97-hour weeks. Welcome to life and death decisions. Welcome to a constant tsunami of bodily fluids. Welcome to earning less than the hospital parking meter. Wave goodbye to your friends and relationships. Welcome to the life of a first-year doctor.

Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights, and missed weekends, comedian and former medical resident Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the front lines of medicine.

Hilarious, horrifying, and heartbreaking by turns, this is everything you wanted to know—and more than a few things you didn’t—about life on and off the hospital ward.

And yes, it may leave a scar.

©2019 Adam Kay (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about This Is Going to Hurt

Average customer ratings
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Amazing

As an OBGYN physician 3 months out if residency he’ll. I feel heard, I feel seen, this was therapy.

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5 people found this helpful

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  • DM
  • 07-05-23

Great read

We’ll written, funny, sad and impactful. I’m so glad he tried to make a difference in health care vs. just writing about it. Well done.

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  • Overall
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Accurate, spot on, funny and thoughtful

After spending 30 years of my life as a Respiratory Therapist I felt a kinship to the author. His tales are hilarious and can’t be scripted. The tragedies are real and can never be forgotten. Personally, I suffer from PTSD from working trauma for so long. I get it, I also quit and never looked back. We are all responsible for creating change. This author did an excellent job for broader discussion.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Powerful

As someone about to start medical school and a new mom who recently struggled through my own journey on the labor ward, these stories resonated with me - the author had me laughing out loud one moment and then crying the next. Thank you to the author for sharing his story.

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3 people found this helpful

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Funny short stories! Very much enjoyed!

Adam did a great job narrating his book. The stories he told were hilarious, shocking and sometimes sad. Great idea on a book. I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to everyone else.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Very Funny

Honest & funny this book made me LOL often. It also highlights the pitfalls of healthcare in a free market (US) as well as social systems (UK). After endless brutal years of work and scathing sarcasm, the book ends rather abruptly. The epilogue has a strange feel. It talks about doctors, income, politics, and sacrifice. Unfortunately, Kay complains but falls woefully short in his responsibility to allow socialized medicine to own its innate shortcomings.

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2 people found this helpful

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A M A Z I N G

I am a child and on my parent’s frend’s acount but wow! This is great! Laughing actively and read or listened to I guess at least 20 times, never gets boring! I also recommend Adam Kay’s other books!

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Perfection

Exactly me (except I haven’t left medicine yet b/c something so terrible hasn’t happened to me… yet).
Exactly everything wrong and right with medicine. I’m sorry Adam had to go through this, I’m sorry I have had to go through this too. Power in knowing you are not alone.
Not a story for the weak of heart.
This story is a current day House of God.
Thank you for being brave enough to tell this story.

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4 people found this helpful

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Simple, straight forward and raw!

The format was great and kept the reader’s interest throughout. It was humbling to hear the challenged doctors face in a humorous narrative. Great book and enjoyed listening to it!

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2 people found this helpful

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Fantastic and Spooky

Adam captures being in the medical field all too well. The book was kind of spooky to read as a medical student but also strangely inspiring.

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