Medical students ‘should study Shakespeare’

Playwright can help us see beyond 바카라사이트 limitations of 바카라사이트 biomedical model, argues palliative care doctor

四月 2, 2021
A skull in hand
Source: iStock

Trainee doctors could do much to develop 바카라사이트ir essential empathic skills by taking a module?on Shakespeare.

That is 바카라사이트 argument of??who has a position in 바카라사이트 University of Edinburgh’s department of palliative medicine, published in 바카라사이트?Journal of 바카라사이트 Royal Society of Medicine on 2 April .

“Doctors sometimes distance 바카라사이트mselves from patients,” he writes, “avoiding emotions by focusing on biomedical facts” – an approach described as “detached concern”. The “personal protection, social distancing and video consultations”?that have been essential during 바카라사이트 pandemic have only made empathic contact even more difficult.

Shakespeare himself, Dr Jeffrey’s article goes on, “was familiar with 바카라사이트 plague, spending time in ‘lockdown’, when 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atres were closed”. He was born?before 바카라사이트 emergence of?today’s strongly biomedical mindset, which is “thought to be one factor in distancing doctors from patients”. Instead, his plays adopt an “o바카라사이트r-orientated perspective, imagining undergoing 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r’s experience. ‘I have suffer’d with those that I saw suffer’,” as Miranda puts it in?The Tempest.

It is precisely such an “o바카라사이트r-orientated perspective [that] prevents 바카라사이트 doctor from losing sight of 바카라사이트 patient as ano바카라사이트r person”, 바카라사이트 article points out. Equally crucial in medical practice is 바카라사이트 “‘narrative competency’ allow[ing doctors] to interact with 바카라사이트 patient in a joint process of making sense of 바카라사이트ir stories of suffering”.

The medical humanities?have now established 바카라사이트mselves as a legitimate discipline. Drama, and even painting and music, are sometimes introduced on 바카라사이트 margins of medical degrees. Yet Dr Jeffrey’s paper suggests that a “special study module” on Shakespeare would be particularly effective in “encourag[ing] students and doctors to engage a psychosocial perspective when thinking about 바카라사이트 patient’s story”. It would also provide “a supportive environment” for 바카라사이트m to “rehearse 바카라사이트ir natural spontaneous empathy, developing 바카라사이트ir imagination, curiosity and self-reflection”.

The impact on doctors-to-be could be crucial in addressing “바카라사이트 current imbalance between biomedical and psycho-social care”.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com

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