I'm not gonna lie, the greatest impact of this book on me is that the author writes about jacking off in the hospital showers and now I refuse to use the hospital showers in the locker rooms

Edit 10/29/25: there's a intense moment in there where he admits to homicidal ideation hours into a transplant case and how easy it would be to unleash the vascular clamps and let someone die in a matter of seconds. They could call it an accident and go home and get sleep, and he's immediately sickened by that thought. It's a unspeakable intrusive thought that exists in all residents whether they pretend it exists or not and it's hard to describe the emotions when you hope someone dies against your oath so you can finally have less work to do. His description comes close.

Edit 10/31/25: I do actually like this book a lot too, it describes the fear and nausea that comes with the knowledge that even the smallest errors can separate survival from failure. Hard to forget the importance of sterility when a infected bypass artery ruptures, catastrophically exsanguinating your patient silently overnight.