What It Means to be a Doctor

New York: Public Relations Bureau, Medical Society of the State of New York, 1939. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. [8], 87, [1] pages. Footnotes. Pencil underlining noted. Taped inside the rear cover is a TLS by Dr. Anderson to Dr. Frederick Williams noting a speech Dr. Williams made and indicating he was sending him this book separately. Author's Inscription on the fep. Inscription reads To: Dr. Frederick Williams Who fully know what it means... With Best Regards Dwight Anderson Dec. 11, 1944. Content sections are: What It Means...to Doctors; What It Means...to Dr. Edgar James; What It Means...to the Public. A questionnaire was sent to 500 general practitioners, surgeons, pediatricians, orthopedists, gynecologists, obstetricians, and many other specialists throughout the country. Only four were asked: 1. What qualities of mind and character do you consider most important for the practice of medicine as a profession? 2. How old were you (approximately) when you determined to be a doctor? 3. What decided you? 4. If you had a son, would you wish him to select medicine as career? Honesty was said to be the most important of all the qualifications by 173 doctors who, having thus proclaimed this as a standard, proceeded to be quite frank. Sixty-two doctors (22%) specified that to be a doctor one must have "intellectual curiosity," that is, a searching, inquisitive nature, a longing for the acquisition of knowledge, an eagerness for discovery, and an everlasting curiosity concerning that most complex product of nature, the human being. In the words of the Dean of a medical school, "the kind of medical student wanted is the type who, when he finds an unanswered question, cannot rest until he has solved it." Dr. Anderson (1882-1953) was a noted member of the New York medical establishment. He rose to become the Director of the Society's Public Relations Bureau. This is not only a rare surviving copy of this compendium of early survey results, but has the the unique aspect of not only having been inscribed, but that there is an accompanying typed letter signed with substantive content on medical communications with the lay public affixed to the inside of the rear board. For example, Dr. Anderson write to Dr. Williams, "You go into it in a way to make clear to any layman just what is medical care and to disabuse his mind on many of the misconceptions which are the basic reasons for present efforts at socialization." Condition: Good.

Keywords: Physicians, Doctors, Medical Education, Public Affairs, Communication, Edgar James, Illness, Healing, Survey, Questionnaire

[Book #83230]

Price: $500.00

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