Medicine and Literature: Part 1

Earlier in the hols I promised a post or two on Medicine and Literature, a topic I've been luck enough to have the chance to study this year at uni. I'm going to stray away from the stuff I've looked into most because I'm writing an essay on it and would hate to get shouted at for plagerising my own blog, so I'll talk about something a bit different.

I'm not going to go into anything in huge amounts of detail. Basically I think it would be nice to let you guys know about some authors you may have not heard of before, and if you like the look of it then you can hunt some of their stuff out yourself.

I'm going to start today with Mikhail Bulgakov. He was born in 1891 in Kiev which was then still part of the Russian Empire. What struck me most about Bulgakov was how similar his writing is to the many blogs I read today. The Master and Margarita is his most famous book, but the most relevant to doctors and medical students today is probably his collection of short stories based around a recently graduated doctor just starting work in a rural hospital. This collection is called A Country Doctor's Notebook.

This is based on true life as Bulgakov graduated as a doctor and practiced for a short time before he quit to persue his true passion, literature.

To sum up the short stories they all revolve around a junior doctor and his development during his first year of work. Like many blog posts he talks about his fear, how he doesn't feel he's learnt enough at medical school and how tiring it is to be a doctor. Also like many blogs he recounts all the stories with a good dose of humour when it's appropriate. Reading the stories I had to smile to myself because it's reassuring to know that even over 100 years ago medical graduates still had the same fears and insecurities as they do today.

Lily xXx