Preparing medical students for the writing of history of present illness: Marching from short story reading and the practice of visual art

The study of literature is believed to be beneficial to the development of the necessary competencies required of medical students/ doctors, such as skills of observation and interpretation, as well as empathy for patients. According to Bramstedt,1 it is essential that medical students develop observation skill, which is rarely explicitly taught, before learning to make diagnosis and treatment because it may be related to how they listen to patients, and how they make reflective and analytical thinking about their illness. Nevertheless, very few interdisciplinary course designs have been found that integrated the study of literature with medical humanities education. This study aims to explore how the study of literature and practice of visual art can be incorporated into an English language course to prepare for the students’ medical writing of history of present illness (HPI), which describes chronologically the progression of the patient’s present illness from the first sign and symptom to the present. The writing of HPI includes chief complaint, narrative account of the illness, detailed description of symptoms (e.g. location, severity and duration), past history and family history of the present illness, and patient’s social life. A suitable reading choice of literary works can result in a good guidance to the writing of history of present illness. Choosing a literary text that has characters whose personal traits and background might be seen in clinic encounters may be helpful for medical students to imagine what their clientsto-be will be like in the future and what problems