Slow Medicine

The Way to Healing

By: Victoria Sweet

Narrated by: Victoria Sweet

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

The award-winning author of God's Hotel offers a radical reimagining of how we practice medicine.

In the quarter century that Victoria Sweet has been a doctor, "health care" has replaced medicine, "providers" (vastly outnumbered by administrators) look at their laptops more than at their patients, and the ruthless pursuit of efficiency has vanquished not only trust and intimacy but also, often, the effectiveness of treatment.

Victoria Sweet knows that there is an alternative way because she has lived and practiced it. In her new book, she reflects with compassion, wit, and profound insight on experiences drawn from her time in medical school, internship, and residencies and the clinics and hospitals that lay beyond - the path to the "slow medicine" in which she has been pioneer and inspiration. Via unforgettable stories of the patients she tended and the colleagues with whom she served, she gives voice to a way of medicine that responds to bodies rather than data, that appreciates the profession as craft as well as science, and that alchemizes "fast" and "slow" into a much more humane, sustainable, and successful way of caring and being cared for.

©2017 Victoria Sweet (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Wonderful...often lyrical...subtle and insightful.... Physicians would do well to learn this most important lesson about caring for patients from Sweet's book: 'Establishing the correct diagnoses and then getting them off all those unnecessary medications, with their side effects and adverse reactions, took a lot of time, but in the long run it saved way more money than it cost. It was slower but it was better.'" (The New York Times Book Review)

"Anybody considering medical school, or already toiling there, has to read this book. Everyone else should too...[Sweet’s] memoir of growing slowly into her calling is about learning not just to save lives but to make a life.... Her personal odyssey is more stirring than any polemical manifesto could be." (The Atlantic)

"Through the moving stories of patients and her experiences in medical school, [Sweet] explores how she found a compassionate way to care. A thoughtful companion to one of today’s hot-button issues." (Good Housekeeping)

Excellent. Introductory.

Outstanding, but seems like an introduction that needs a sequel in order to dive deeper into the emerging field and benefits of slow medicine. Written by an author trained in, and over a long career appreciative of what she rightly describes as fast medicine, the book has much to commend it as not abandoning the almost incalculable benefits of modern Western medicine. I say almost, because as she so frequently alludes to, the benefits of fast medicine come at a cost that we as a human community can not and should no longer be willing to pay. Her periodic references to Wendell Berry add beautiful gravitas to this much needed subject. And notwithstanding her rich exposure to the history of anthropology and its intersection with medicine, some of her references to astrology seem unfortunately laden with Eastern pantheistic concepts that ultimately undermine what would otherwise be a rich Christian testimony. Definitely worth the read though and very much grateful for her winsome leaning in on this long overdue subject.

Excellent

Excellent book. Thank you and those who were part of this journey in healthcare. It helped nourished some burn out symptoms. Being a Nurse for 10+ years has been so gratifying but also strained by “people upstairs”.
You are a wonderful human❤️

Stunning

An absolutely beautiful and insightful look at what medicine is and could be. I highly recommend it to anyone working in healthcare, but also to anyone outside the field who want a peek into this controversial world. Witty and thought-provoking. Narration was by the author and was spectacular, clear and level but expressive. I was enthralled every minute.

Heart breaking for us in the trenches

I feel this book to my bones, especially after working in healthcare through Covid. The system is going to break, something has to give. I’m sick of non med staff dictating our practice and keeping us from actual patient care. The admin heavy medical system is just further driving up costs and people aren’t getting any healthier.

Slow is Beautiful

Thanks to VictoriaSweet for writing this fabulous book and for taking the time to cultivate slow medicine. She has the antidote for what ails us as a culture, and fortunately for anyone who is sick, she is writing about and teaching what our practitioners most need to learn. God spare us all from “health care.”

So good

This book has been one of the few audible books that I binged listened to and I know I will listen to again.

disappointed

i loved gods hotel. I read the hard copy and found it a page turner. this one... well, I dont like her narration style. not enough to listen to the end.

Terrible recording

Could not get through the first chapter. Very poor recording and not the best narration. Had to return.

Pretentious and self-indulging.

I was very eager to start this book, I truly love the concept and support the idea of slow medicine. the book starts out excellent setting a stage as to why we need a change in our healthcare system. Chapter by chapter I kept waiting for some form of solution in all the stories but found none. What I heard were stories from a privilleged author who liked to point out how much better they were at medicine than others. At how much more attention to detail and caring they were but ran at the first sign of resistance to what they believed in. This is eveident when the the description of the pharmacist is given. The words can't hide how much the author loathes her colleagues in other disciplines who prevented her from making mistakes. I hope you enjoy this book but this was not the journey I expected and that's fine, it's good to disagree.