Abstract
Literature, over the years, has become a potent instrument in humanizing medical practice, which manifests in different forms. Scholars in the domains of literature and medicine have identified the significance of literary knowledge in clinical or medical experiences. From consultation, diagnoses and treatments, humanistic tools constitute the hallmarks of medical practice, which are evident in the therapeutic relationship that involves the patient and care-giver. Literary writers, the world over, have consciously or unconsciously created human health awareness by representing medical episodes and therapeutics as central themes; in such texts, biomedical experiences like illnesses, diseases and ethical issues of medicine are foregrounded. A significant layer of literature and medicine is the exploration of ethical standards in the medical profession, where characterization and dialogues are used to emphasize physician-patient relationship in the therapeutic process. In Nigeria, where medical practice is predominantly doctor-centered, one encounters how physicians and healthcare professionals consistently contravene the Hippocratic Oath, the official and/or sacred document that contains the ethics of medicine. This article examines the appropriation of the patient-centered therapeutic relationship in Emmanuel Babatunde Omobowale’s play, The President’s Physician, highlighting the import of medical ethics in the rehabilitative process. The play is given a close-reading and subjected to qualitative, literary analysis, identifying patient-centered ethical principles like non-maleficence, patient autonomy, beneficence and justice that should form the bedrock of medical practice. Omobowale, in his play, explores the need for medical doctors and other healthcare givers to provide care that is respectful of, and responsive to the preferences of their patients. The analysis is anchored on Stephen Kekeghe’s Pathotextualism which underscores the interplay of illness or disease (pathos) and text (literature).
Highlights
The art and humanities have been constantly deployed in creating awareness on the ethics of medicine and other domains of human health experiences, which is aimed at enforcing a humanistic, therapeutic relationship between the caregiver and the patient
The Hippocratic Oath is the earliest expression of medical ethics in the western world, propounded by Hippocrates, the Greek physician and father of medicine
It is a vow made by new physicians during their induction into the medical profession, and it clearly defines a patient-centred approach to medical practice
Summary
The art and humanities have been constantly deployed in creating awareness on the ethics of medicine and other domains of human health experiences, which is aimed at enforcing a humanistic, therapeutic relationship between the caregiver and the patient. The introduction of literary and humanistic tools to medical practice humanizes significantly, the medical profession by building a more empathic and efficient healthcare professionals This is why Evans notes that literature helps to stimulate a humanistic approach to physician-patient relationship [5]. The Hippocratic Oath is the earliest expression of medical ethics in the western world, propounded by Hippocrates, the Greek physician and father of medicine It is a vow made by new physicians during their induction into the medical profession, and it clearly defines a patient-centred approach to medical practice. This article examines the representation of the Hippocratic ethics of medicine in Emmanuel Babatunde Omobowale’s play, The President’s Physician This dramatic recreation of medical ethics, to foreground the patient-doctor relationship in the therapeutic process, is aimed at humanizing physicians when faced with the business of care-giving. It is evident that the Pathotextual approach is suitable for a close reading of the clinical issues explored in Omobowale’s play under study
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