by Suzanne Poirier
reviewed by Johanna Shapiro, PhD
Doctors in the Making by Suzanne Poirier is an intelligent, meticulous, and heartfelt analysis of how physicians come into being as a result of their medical school and residency training. The book reviews over forty physician memoirs, all focused on medical training rather than practice, spanning the 1950s to the mid-2000s. Poirier focuses her attention on the “unofficial” stories of medical education at both the undergraduate (medical student) and graduate (resident) levels, the stories that medical school deans and admission officers tend not to tell but that learners cannot refrain from telling.