I really enjoyed this knowledgeable book.
In Prescription Comedy, author Dr. Pranathi Kondapaneni shares her personal journey with burnout and how an almost accidental foray into the world of comedy proved key to her cure.

What you’ll discover:

* Why so many physicians succumb to burnout and suffer a loss of faith as they toil under the weight of a medical system that doesn’t value connection

* Where the true value of comedy truly lies: in cultivating a connection with the audience that extends far beyond making them laugh

* How Dr. Kondapaneni’s personal quest to improve the physician-patient communication bond led her to discover and explore comedy

* Simple lessons that can help you defeat physician burnout

A must read!

I enjoyed reading Prescription Comedy: An Unlikely Antidote to Physician Burnout by Pranathi Kondapaneni. Unfortunately, I see many parallels in my profession of nursing with burnout as well. #PrescriptionComedy #NetGalley

I enjoyed this book, I found it an interesting read looking into the life and stresses for the medical professionals. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for a review. I will be putting this review on Amazon too.

Pranathi Kondapaneni, MD, author of Prescription Comedy: An Unlikely Antidote To Physician Burnout, studied medicine some time before me, but our stories are not so different. Although on an entirely different continent, and an entirely different cultural background, her experience with burnout resonates clearly with me. While her writing somewhat lacks prosaism (and has an excess of mixed metaphors), it is made up for by her unapologetic honesty.

Prescription Comedy is a memoir, presented as a medical text, and therein lies its weakness. Kondapaneni has the ability to connect with the reader, but the text is inconsistent – now vulnerable and engaging, then clinical and subdivided into headings. The headings with their truncated paragraphs give the work an especially clinical feeling.

Kondapaneni shares her run-up to burnout and delves into some evidence in the field; but I would have liked to read more of her story and less of subject matter I am already well-versed in, by virtue of being part of the target audience.

Prescription Comedy is an ode to comedy, in the same way that runners write odes about running and what it has taught them about life (done that, back when I used to run more). However, it runs the risk of estranging those readers who are interested in the book, but not particularly in comedy as an activity. I was eager to learn how comedy helped this doctor, but knew I was never going to attend an improv class of my own.

What I miss most in this text is a more thorough discussion on why comedy was an antidote to Kondapaneni’s burnout, and what it can teach us about preventing and treating burnout in the wildly heterogenous medical community – because burnout, as with most mental health disorders, has as many variations of “antidote”, as it has patients.

That said, Prescription Comedy is brief enough to read for its unique perspective alone. I would recommend it to healthcare workers who have tried the textbook approaches to burnout and found them lacking; and who are in the mental space to consider unconventional courses of action.

I needed this. This has been the hardest year in my profession and this book was the cure for my slump.

Incredible, I am so thankful that the author wrote this

I enjoyed this book. The author did a nice job sharing a bit about the medical industry and the challenges that physicians face, as well as causes of burnout and communication issues between doctors and patients. She also shared some personal and informational anecdotes about improv, stand up comedy, and comedic writing. I wish that the author had shared more personal stories (medical or comical) as well as some (fictional or real) comedic stories. She shared that one of her writing pieces was about speed dating to choose a doctor, but she didn’t include that writing in her book, I would love to have a glimpse into her more fictional or personal narrative stories as I think she has some great potential! This was a quick and relatively easy read, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning a bit more about life as a doctor and/or a comedian! I hope to see more stories from her in the future! Thanks NetGalley and Ingeium (publisher) for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Well, as Jack Benny might have said, this book is a very pleasant surprise. It is about how a physician, with burnout, discovers how comedy restores balance to her life. She sounds like a wonderful physician and much of her book focuses not on creating yucks and laughs, but on using comedy and improvisation as a way of connecting with human beings. Her books is very compassionate, easy to read, has a good bibliography, and her heart shines through. I am a CPA, and I do use humor in my communications with my clients (and the IRS, funny people). I completely agree with all of her points in the book, and I find the book very life affirming and positive. Just what the doctor ordered, eh?