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In October 2015, I published a blog by the same name as this one, you can read it here if you want.

I explained that someone had taught me the concept of learning "the art" of dentistry, that person was Dr John Gibson (now Professor John Gibson) when I was a young House Officer.

As this blog post is published I should be on my way back to the airport having spoken to the PESCAY group in Glasgow (see last night’s blog) where I handed out some of the books discussed below.

There were 8 books last time, there are more now. All of them I think would make a significant contribution to a young healthcare professional into a caring career and I’ve listed them all below, the first 7 are from the previous publication.

Being Mortal – Atul Gawande

Do no harm – Henry Marsh

C: Because cowards get Cancer too – John Diamond

Linchpin – Seth Godin

House of God – Samuel Shem

To Sell is Human – Daniel Pink

Healing without Freud or Prozac – David Servan-Schreiber

The Patient Paradox - Margaret McCartney

Margaret Mcarthey is a GP in Glasgow who has written a lot in the media and several books but this book is an extraordinary collection of thoughts about sexed up medicine and what is wrong in healthcare.

As for a framework of ethics for a young healthcare professional this book should be on the curriculum at every medical and dental school.

David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell

I wouldn’t like to pick out a book which was my favourite or the most essential out of this list but if I did it would be this one.

I keep a copy of this in library binding (hard wearing) because I return to it time and time again. Not only are the stories inspirational but the concepts are utterly invaluable, not just for anybody in dentistry or medicine but for anybody anywhere.

Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek 

Anybody entering into a position in healthcare is choosing a life in a leadership role of some form or another. Nobody that I have ever come across has explained the essence of leadership better than this.

Out of Our Minds – Ken Robinson

The future looks dark and bleak for people entering into healthcare at the present time, especially if they read the news.

We need a new set of skills to navigate the future and Ken Robinson wrote it a long time ago. Everything he wrote here is still entirely relevant. This is one of the most extraordinary books on creativity, something that we should be teaching our children from the age of 0.

Mindfulness – Mark Williams and Danny Penman (Audiobook)

In my opinion, this book should be taken in conjunction with the head space app on your mobile phone. Still not cool or masculine to talk about mindfulness or mental health but for these guys who are graduating now and entering into the stress of healthcare practice, looking after mental health will be one of the biggest issues. Almost everybody gets the importance of physical health but they get very little guidance, tuition or education regarding looking after their mental health. Mindfulness for many people will be the best way forwards in this.

Black Box Thinking – Matthew Syed

The book that changed healthcare (at least for those that read it). This is Syed’s masterpiece and he is unlikely to do better. It should be read in conjunction with Margaret McCartney in the first year of dental and medical school.

Happier – Tal Ben – Shahar

The audiobook that I’ve listened to the most, wonderfully read by the author. A construct of the course that he provides at Harvard University. Why else did anybody go into to healthcare as a job if not to make them happy?

Prethics

Finally, the prethics blog (everything comes back to that for me now). How do you reference your ethics against having enough to get you up the runs of Maslow’s hierarchy in terms of ‘stuff’; for me it has to be simple and useable every single day, and prethics is what does that for me.

(Incase you were unaware, the pink words are links to places where the books are and other material)

Blog post number: 1562