The Role of Poetry in Enhancing Medical Students’ Learning in Dermatology | Chapter 10 | Language, Literature and Education: Research Updates Vol. 3

Background: Poetic science has been defined as the integration of visual arts, performing arts, and creative expression, such as poetry, in embodying science courses such as physical sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine to give it a more familiar social construct. Poetry is one of the major categories of literature, which is characterized by having a meter form, rhyme, rhythm and other figurative expressions. It can be incorporated into other forms of literature, such as prose and drama, as it was the focus of the World Poetry Day 2023 theme: ‘Be a Poet even in Prose’. Poetry is being encouraged even in the teaching of medicine, particularly in countries such as Australia, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom.

 

Aim: This study focused on the response of medical students to poems that were part of the lecture slides.

 

Methods: A selected day was set aside for dermatology education with poetry as the focus. Short excerpts of poems taken from a collection of poems titled ‘Scar Songs’ formed part of the lecture slides for two different topics- ' bacterial skin infections and papulosquamous lesions’ on two different days during the dermatology posting for the fifth-year medical students. The poems used were on impetigo on the first day of posting and on lichen planus and psoriasis on the third day.  The response of the medical students was judged by a voice vote, hand count, body language, and attention paid to the poems during the reading.

 

Results: The Majority of the students (75%) raised their hands in affirmation that they enjoyed the class. There were positive emotions such as smiles and laughter among the students. The attention as viewed by the tutor was that of 100% as all the students were awake and alert, with heads up throughout the time of the lecture. On the lecture assessment form, a student stated that the use of poetry aided his understanding.

 

Conclusion: Poetry can be enjoyed by medical students. It can be used as a teaching aid in dermatology. The use of poetry in teaching dermatology can be further enhanced by applying research poetics, which involves transcribing spoken words of patients and clients into verses.

 

Author (s) Details

 

Ekechi Stella Amadi
Dermatology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Rivers State University & Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria and Dermatology in Clinical Practice, Faculty of Life Sciences and Education, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, United Kingdom.

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/lleru/v3/4672