Stress Test Book Review

Content warning: this review discusses sexism and racism.

Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by Mindbuck Media Book Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

It’s always interesting to learn about history from the ground up. What do I mean by this? Simply, I enjoy hearing stories about regular people dealing with important events and changes in history. Take for example: Stress Test by Kay White Drew. It’s a memoir which details a neonatal physician’s experiences as one of the first women to go through medical school in the 1970s. It stressed me out in a good way because of what she had to endure and how she balanced becoming a doctor with her personal life.

Stress Test is about a 5-year period, in which Kay White Drew undertook medical training in the 1970s. This experience would take her from the lecture halls to an internship in pediatrics. During this time, she would make difficult diagnoses and dangerous mistakes, connect with patients, and reel in their loss. Women consisted of less than a fifth of Kay’s medical school class, so sexism was unfortunately present. On top of that, she was a white woman working in West Baltimore – a predominantly Black urban environment, so she saw the human cost of racism. All this took place while she navigated personal struggles like her mother’s death within two months of starting medical school; several ill-starred romantic relationships; a roommate’s suicide; and her own battle with mental health, which led to her going to therapy.

First off, Drew does a great job painting the picture. She sets up the physical and mental environment, in which she had to work, beautifully. Kay constantly remarks on how bleak the hospitals she had her clinical rotations and how grueling the hours were. In addition, since she was part of a small group of women who were among the first to go into medical school, the sexism was inevitable. This included patients mistaking her for a nurse, teachers only acknowledging the male students in the room, and one mentor trying to get her to sleep with him. That last one was particularly gross. She also witnessed racism, especially when she saw a white male resident perform a pelvic exam on a black woman (p. 149-153). Despite those encounters, she had male colleagues and professors who helped her out as much as they could by showing her the ropes and allowing her to build up her own confidence in practicing medicine.

Moreover, I appreciate how earnest Kay is about her experiences. She makes it no secret that she felt exhausted during this period in her life. Not only was the work tiring, but she also was going through some personal issues like her mother passing away during her first year in medical school and finding a man to settle down with. Kay admits that there were times that she wanted to quit, yet she didn’t. These sections made me feel sorry for her, for it seemed that she had to go through several hoops in order to succeed. Nevertheless, she had a good support system with her father; siblings; friends that she made while at school; the therapy she undertook; and a mentor and part-time lover Dr. Preston, who always believed in her. They all encouraged her to do her best.

She’s also honest about the mistakes that she made while in medical school. For example, she recounts that when she began her first year as a pediatric resident, she was assigned a premature baby who appeared well. She noted that he had “a lovely shade of pink, indicating that he was oxygenating himself in room air without difficulty” (p. 280).

Later that night, that infant turned blue. I’ll leave it up to the reader to find out the fate of that infant.

Kay’s main struggle in medical school was finding a man who could take care of her. Her main source of conflict was the balance between being a doctor and a woman. Since the 1970s was a time in which women were beginning to encroach into male-dominated fields and asserting their independence, it’s no surprise that people like Kay were having this dilemma. Kay found a handful of lovers, some better than others, but she always had something nice to say about them no matter how tumultuous the relationship was.

Considering that this is the core conflict in the book, it was shocking when she revealed the name of the man she eventually married. Even though I’m sure that she loves him very much, her husband is not given any backstory, nor even a tale of how they met. I certainly thought it was going to be John – the divorced medical student who was very cordial to her and listened while she told him of the struggles she was going through. Despite this, I will give her credit for at least acknowledging that all of her past loves prepared her for the relationship with her husband, for it’s a nice outcome.

Lastly, Kay’s writing is personable. Along with being transparent about her personal life, she’s that way too with her work. She describes various procedures that she had to perform in words that anybody could understand. There were times that she saw that her colleagues didn’t, especially during the pelvic exam episode. In other words, she wanted to set an example not only for herself, but also for future doctors.

Stress Test by Kay White Drew is a fascinating look at one woman’s journey in medical school in the 1970s. Drew holds nothing back while describing the obstacles she had to go through in order to be a doctor that patients could trust. She describes the environment well, and I admire her honesty about everything she went through, including relationships, her mental health, and what it means to be a doctor and a woman. While it may not be for everybody, especially those who easily get bored with all of the descriptions of the medical procedures, I would recommend it to those who are involved in the medical field from students to retirees. This is a great primary source for what it was like when more women were becoming doctors in the 1970s. Stress Test is out now, so go grab it wherever you get your books.

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