On Service - by Abraham Nussbaum & Brewer Eberly (Paperback)

About the Book

An illustrated pocket book for clinicians who want their faith to guide their workdays.

Book Synopsis

What would change if the everyday carry of healthcare workers included not only a stethoscope and a smartphone, but also an illuminated book of prayers and practices for the clinical hours? Compact for work like the quick reference guides doctors and nurses carried for decades, On Service fits between your phone and your heart, a soul-nourishing analog resource that reorients you to the soul of medical care. At a time when many in the profession experience burnout and disillusionment, On Service will help clinicians slow down, reclaim presence, and see their patients with the eyes of faith, hope, and love.

The book reimagines the rhythms of the clinical day, beginning with prayers a doctor or nurse might say as they cross the threshold, gather before rounds, enter a patient's room, welcome a child, prepare for surgery, sit with one who is dying, or wait on call. Each page is an immersive visual experience to delight and steady the spirit of those called to serve the sick: details from centuries-old prints, typographic art pieces turning medical materials into invitations to read scripture, and inky woodcuts from contemporary artists paired with texts from the Christian tradition. On the busiest days, simply carrying this little book will remind clinicians of their intention to practice medicine with mercy and grace, as if they are serving Christ himself.

About the Author

Abraham M. Nussbaum, MD, is a psychiatrist and Chief Education Officer at Denver Health and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is the author of The Finest Traditions of My Calling: One Physician's Search for the Renewal of Medicine (Yale, 2016), and Progress Notes: One Year in the Future of Medicine (Johns Hopkins, 2024), and has been published in America, Commonweal, Plough, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and three children.

Brewer Eberly is a third-generation family physician and a McDonald Agape Fellow in the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School. He is the author of The Healer's Vocation: A Small Group for Christians in Health Care (Lulu, 2024), and co-director of The Good Surgeon program at Duke. He has been published in JAMA, The New Atlantis, Plough, Comment, and Mere Orthodoxy, with artwork on the cover of Academic Medicine and in the AMA Journal of Ethics. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife and three sons.