SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE - STUDENTS POEMS ABOUT THEIR MEDICAL-EDUCATION

Personal creative writing is increasingly used in medical schools to f oster self-reflection. This article looks particularly at poetry as a vehicle for expressing personal experiences of professional developmen t. The authors present a series of poems written by students at their medical school. In them, the students reflect on embryology, gross ana tomy, telling (or not telling) bad news to trusting patients (and fami ly members), encountering death, and encountering their own anger and frustration with the demands of medicine: These poems not only capture individual students' feelings and imaginations but also demonstrate t he students' constant struggle to sustain their idealism about medicin e throughout the four years of their education.