Something for the Pain: Compassion and Burnout in the ER

These are the words of Paul Austin, as he introduces the reader to the men and women—eccentric and well-adjusted, drunk and sober—who make up a day’s work in the ER. From describing the process of issuing a death certificate for a man who shot himself in the head to attending a child in trauma from a car accident, to finding the cause of an elderly man’s fever, Austin paints a vivid picture of life in the ER and its effects on an ER doctor.

In his eye-opening account, Austin recalls how the daily grind of long, erratic shifts and endless lines of patients with sad stories sends him down a path of bitterness and cynicism. His own life becomes Exhibit A, as he details the emotional detachment that estranges him from himself and his family. Gritty, powerful, and ultimately redemptive, Austin’s memoir is a revealing glimpse into the fragility of compassion and sanity in the industrial setting of today’s hospitals.