¿Cuál debe ser el grosor del escudo? La enseñanza de las sutilezas de la relación médico-paciente mediante obras literarias y películas comerciales

Abstract

The good teaching of the patient-doctor relationship is a difficult task before medical students have clinical experience. Even then, students may follow the bad examples of some tutors and sub-optimal care will follow until they become aware of this behaviour. Literature and popular movies may help medical students to understand what patients expect from their doctors, and how to be careful without themselves suffering for every patient’s disease. In the present review, two literary works and the films which were inspired by them are discussed. They show how doctors should avoid the neglecting of emotional needs of their patients, but also what the consequences are of an excessive implication in medical duties. Both of them may be useful teaching tools to introduce students to the subtleties of medical practice.