CFP Press

Books by Patrick Hudson, MD

CFP Press is the publishing imprint of Patrick Hudson, MD. It was created to house a small body of work that speaks to what medicine does to the people who practice it. Not from the outside—but from the inside, with all its complexity, quiet costs, and private reckonings.

We don't publish often. Or broadly. Just intentionally.

Available now from CFP Press:
Ten Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Medical School — a reflective, unsentimental look at what medical training doesn't teach, and how to stay human in a system that rewards detachment.

This is a place for what doesn't usually fit. The thoughts between consults. The questions that stayed. And the language that might help someone feel a little less alone in the work.

Contact: pahudson@mac.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/patrickdarnleyhudsonpatrickdarnleyhudson.

Ten Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Medical School

No One Told Me, So I'm Telling You

By Patrick Hudson, MD
Published by CFP Press
Available Now
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This is not a guide. It's a series of reflections about what medicine does to the people who practice it—from the inside out.

Each chapter is written in a voice I wish I'd heard earlier. Before the badge. Before the pager. Before the system quietly trained me to stay silent about the things that mattered most.

It's for the student who's already tired.
For the intern—or house officer—who's questioning everything.
For the doctor still trying to stay human in a system that keeps asking them not to.

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What it covers:
- Perfectionism and performance
- What cadavers teach—and don't
- Isolation, competition, and imposter syndrome
- Why doctors forget who they are
- The cost of caring (and of pretending not to)
- The quiet grief no one warned you about

Not answers. But something like recognition.
Just the ten things I wish someone had said out loud.

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Available in print and eBook

The Physician as Leader

Essential Skills for Doctors Who Didn’t Plan to Lead

The Physician as Leader is not a management manual. It’s a practical, personal guide for doctors who find themselves leading—teams, decisions, conversations—whether they meant to or not.

Drawing on decades of experience as a surgeon, coach, and ethics consultant, Patrick Hudson, MD, offers a different kind of leadership training: one rooted in emotional intelligence, clinical presence, and the realities of modern medical life. With a tone that’s warm, wry, and unscripted,
Physicians don’t ask to lead. But the role finds them anyway—through trust, attrition, or sheer necessity. This book is for doctors who never planned to be in charge—but are now responsible for people, tone, and culture in medicine.

Patrick Hudson writes with rare clarity about what leadership really feels like: the weight of invisible authority, the pushback no one warns you about, the cost of staying calm in the middle of emotional storms. Chapter by chapter, he walks physicians through the unspoken moments where leadership either collapses—or deepens.


Each chapter blends coaching insights, real-world anecdotes, and actionable tools—designed to help doctors lead not by title, but by how they show up.

Includes two practical appendices:
• How to Complain Without Sounding Like an Ass
• Influence in Practice: 9 Moves That Actually Work

The Physician as Leader is for the doctor who still believes in the work—but wants to lead without losing their soul in the process.
Available now in print and eBook