Evensong: how the medical humanities can strengthen a patient-centred approach to both physical and mental health conditions

Abstract

Summary The medical humanities may offer an antidote to the unconscious depersonalisation of patients into clinical variables and diagnoses at the hands of physicians, cultivating a patient-centred and individual approach to the management of both physical and mental health conditions. The emphasis on the person behind the diagnosis helps physicians to remain motivated and compassionate in the face of increasing social and organisational pressures that threaten this human connection. As a doctor and the relative of a patient with dementia, I reflect on the way in which poetry has helped to translate my experience as a relative into improving my own practice as a doctor. This article includes one of the poems I wrote during my grandmother's illness to aid reflection on the patient perspective I gained during her time in hospital, and also a brief commentary exploring the influence this process has had on the interactions I now have with my patients.