Extraordinary Doctor
How Emotional Intelligence Drives a Physician’s Success
Modeling effective doctor-patient and colleague communication, the inspiring career guide Extraordinary Doctor introduces emotional intelligence and people skills as being of significant value to doctors.
A career manual that addresses skills beyond those taught in medical school, Nimesh H. Patel’s supportive guide Extraordinary Doctor examines the role of emotional intelligence in a physician’s work.
Arguing that clinical skills are only half of what a physician needs in order to be successful and fulfilled, this book introduces emotional intelligence and people skills as being tools that are of significant value to doctors. Such skills, it claims, help doctors to connect with their patients and coworkers, fostering communication, empathy, and self-awareness—all skills that are crucial to making good decisions about patients’ health. Indeed, the secondary skills that build into emotional intelligence are addressed in clear ways across the book’s fourteen chapters, which are tidy, well labeled, and filled with actionable advice.
Using enthusiastic language to motivate physicians to perform at their best levels, the book models self-awareness and the self-regulation of one’s emotional responses within a given environment. Personal anecdotes are used to support its claims throughout, such as that too much pride can lead to negative outcomes, or that how a doctor communicates information to a patient can be as important as the content of what they say. For example, to illustrate the importance of knowing when to ask for help, the book covers a surgery gone wrong, when another doctor’s idea saved one of Patel’s patients. And in a chapter dedicated to the seven scenarios that doctors are bound to face (including patients challenging their abilities, referencing internet searches and self-diagnosing, and being dissatisfied with the results of their care), it references moments in which Patel might have taken offense, or in which colleagues did, to what was said in order to model more productive responses, beginning with swallowing one’s ego, validating the other person’s feelings, and responding without taking offense. “Remember the Golden Rule,” one of the book’s quote pages declares: “Treat others as you would like others to treat you.”
The prose is direct and persuasive, resulting in general accessibility. Indeed, even when it mentions specific medical procedures, the book leaves industry jargon behind, choosing to focus instead on conveying the importance of emotional intelligence and people skills. Some of its ideas are repeated without need, though. Still, the book works toward a rousing conclusion in which its central points are reiterated with clarity; it includes further examples of Patel being humbled along the way in pursuit of his medical degree. It also declares:
Knowing yourself and being able to connect with others is the greatest skill a doctor can have. Working to achieve these goals will make you a highly successful and fulfilled physician. The hallmark of an extraordinary doctor.
Extraordinary Doctor is an astute career manual that encourages doctors to foster people skills that are not covered in medical school.
Reviewed by
Carolina Ciucci
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
