What does it mean to help save someone's life? How does it feel to nearly kill a patient? Can we keep our patients safe at night? In the face of overwhelming pressures, can we thrive or only survive? And is a happy life as a doctor still possible?

In the early months and years of work, it is these kinds of questions, rather than any technical or knowledge-based queries, which preoccupy many new doctors. This elusive, hidden curriculum is pervasive within departments, around hospitals and across health systems, but is rarely, if ever, explicitly examined and discussed. At its core is the issue that should matter above all others – how we can keep our patients as safe as possible.

The Bleep Test combines gripping and startlingly vulnerable recollections of early experiences on the wards with an array of research findings, from psychology and human biology to anthropology, business and behavioural economics. Acknowledging that the truly complex challenges facing new doctors lie far beyond the realms of the traditional medical sciences in which they were trained, the book explains that the shift to being a doctor depends on first understanding how we think, reason and behave as someone we have been all our lives – a human amongst humans.

Focused on the experiences of, and the issues facing, recently qualified medics, The Bleep Test is not only for young doctors, but also for anyone who manages them, works with them, cares for them or may one day depend on them.