Literary physicians: Nigerian medical students and the art of creative writing Special release

Abstract

There is no gainsaying the fact that in the developed countries of the world, which include the United States of America, England and Australia, the field of 'Literature and Medicine' has become a very important area of intellectual discourse. In the USA for instance, two-thirds of the medical schools now teach literature to medical students who are thereby exposed to different aspects of human activity. There are also courses designed to introduce the medical students to the art of creative writing. In Nigeria, the first medical school was established in 1948 as a component part of the University College, Ibadan. However, while it is true that literature is not currently being taught in Nigerian medical schools, Nigerian medical students have been writing poems and short stories about different aspects of human experience. In this study, we shall be examining some of these poems and a short story which have appeared in recent volumes of DOKITA, an internationally acclaimed journal published by the University of Ibadan Medical Students Association, to establish the creative potentials of Nigerian medical students.The poems and the short story that were examined in this study were published between 1990 and 1997 in volumes 19,21,23 and 24 of DOKITA.