Perhaps Mengich forgot to tell medical interns what’s vital for their well-being: they should eat all the books, while they still can. Those, too, will be stolen in the future.

This article is more than 8 years old. As anyone who follows medical education knows, the group that sets rules for trainee doctors has just ruled that interns can again work up to 28-hour shifts.

Dr. Sandeep Jauhar talks about his memoir, Intern, which documents his trial-by-fire introduction to the medical profession. Jauhar describes 80-hour weeks and the chronic exhaustion that is the ...