Poetry can be a powerful tool in teaching students and residents interpersonal and scientific aspects of clinical medicine. Advantages of using poetry include emotional intensity, succinct, portable formulations and communication of encompassing, "existential" truths. Limitations include learners' lack of familiarity with the medium of…

The arts and humanities allow the teaching of palliative medicine to come alive by exploring what is often regarded as the most frightening outcome of the illness experience--death and dying. Palliative medicine focuses on the relief of suffering, but how can suffering be understood if the story of the patient is not told through prose, poetry,…