A Young Doctor's Notebook: Zapiski yunovo vracha (Russian Edition)

Sometimes shocking but amusing tales of doctoring in a remote Russian town just after the First World War/Revolution. Tried looking up on Wikipedia to work out why he was injecting people with camphor, which I only connect with killing moths. Sounds as though he has been thrown in at the deep end before he has completed the practical part of his docotr's training. Luckily most of his patients survive!

Definitely aimed a little more at the academically minded (the stories were originally published in medical journals). I still found it enjoyable, even though I don't work in medicine and know very little about it. I think it does address a lot of more universal concerns, common to all of the highly trained professional fields, like questioning your own competence and how every time you start to think you've seen everything, something /special/ shows up.

Recently graduated from medical school, Dr. Bulgakov (no doubt writing at least in part from personal experience) gets assigned to a hospital in a remote Russian village, feeling unprepared to practice medicine. Slowly he learns his trade through interactions with hundreds of local peasants, full of superstition and misinformation, but who slowly come to trust his skill. Dr. B eventually develops confidence in his own abilities and is transferred to a larger hospital. There he hears that his successor in the village is ill and eventually Dr. B takes possession of the successor's diary, where he learns the true cause of the man's illness.While the first part of this short book paints a vivid picture of rural life in pre-revolutionary Russia and the experience of an inexperienced country doctor establishing life amid desolation, it goes downhill from there. In fact, it becomes downright disjointed. The diary of the doctor's successor becomes the final portion of the novel and it is not skillfully integrated. Bulgakov's book, The Master and Margarita, is a much better bet.

Awesome book. Watched the show first and loved both.

A most interesting look into the life of a new and inexperienced doctor and the tools and potions he had to use. As a nurse, i found the whole book fascinating!

The conditions and era in which this new doctor worked were challenging, to say the least. His humility and willingness to accept the help of experienced assistants--even those with little formal training--were admirable, as was his dedication to this practice. Thank God, doctors are no longer sent out to "practice" with so little practical training.

The most fascinating, interesting book that I have read in a long time. It takes place in a very small town in Russia beginning in 1917. A brilliant, just out of medical school doctor is sent to a very small town. He is very afraid of encountering terrible problems requiring surgery he has never seen or never done. He knows he has a lot to learn, but does very well and earns the respect of his co-workers and the people in the community. A series of very interesting experiences in that cold dark place in Russia. And then, there is the diary of his doctor friend from his student days. It's the diary of a young man who gets lost in his addiction. Extremely readable and heart breaking.The only problem with this book is that it's far too short.

chooses to serve his first year of practice in a rural hospital. He describes his colleagues, his challenges, his triumphs - and it is as though we were there with him. The book ends with chilling excerpts from a former classmate's diary who falls into narcotic addiction.