The value of family medicine/general medicine lies in its distinctiveness from academic medicine. It replaced categories with process and relationships. In its scientific method, emotional experience plays an important role. General medicine is unique in the medical field because it transcends the mind-body duality. Therefore, general practitioners should be encouraged to use a non-conventional approach when addressing the problems that arise in the consultation. Fostering reflective practice is an integral part of continuing professional development and training in general practice. Poetry is a method of reflection that can allow physicians to reflect on concepts and experiences. Haiku is a form of traditional Japanese poetry. It consists of a short poem, generally composed of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively (although this meter is flexible, and in English, syllable count is based strictly on pronunciation, not spelling). It is unrhymed and aims to express, in just three lines, a brief and sincere feeling, usually arising from the contemplation of nature or from feelings about love, death, illness, pain, or any lived experience. Using haikus in medical education is an excellent resource for activating critical thinking and humanizing medicine. In the end, medicine and poetry share the same thing: the art of observing and listening attentively. In this article, an illustrative case is presented that gives rise to six haikus to reflect on the basic concept of family medicine of "Family-Centered Care."

General/family medicine is unique in the medical field because it transcends the mind-body duality. Therefore, general practitioners should be encouraged to use unconventional ways of acquiring knowledge. Poetry can be a source of knowledge by providing us with perspectives on reality, and in this sense, it can also have a cognitive impact on us and our understanding of the world. Science and poetry have more in common than most people realize. Both rely on metaphor, which is as crucial to scientific discovery as it is to lyrical description [1-3].

Haikus is a traditional Japanese form of poetry. Using haikus in medical education is an excellent resource for activating reflection on concepts and experiences, critical and ethical thinking, creative abilities, and the humanization of medicine. Because they are such short texts, they require students to fill in the gaps with their own clinical judgment. For students heavily focused on linear, detail-oriented facts haikus act as an outlet to stimulate creativity and process feelings encourage to identify the most salient features of difficult topics (such as the fundamental concepts of general medicine) and pair them with supporting scientific evidence; It is a beautiful project to use haiku writing to help students process the emotional weight of clinical care, explore practical challenges, and articulate the essence of health and illness [4-9]. In this article, 6 haykus are used to reflect on “Family-Centered Care”, a basic concept of family medicine.

Andy, 16, comes to the clinic complaining of recurring abdominal pain with no apparent organic cause after multiple tests. Upon reviewing the family history, you discover that his mother is undergoing advanced cancer treatment and his father suffers from severe reactive depression.

Haukus For Thought

Different branches, yet sharing nourishment now  from the same deep root.

The same heavy plague traveling through the family tree 
of the chosen heirs. (Old and heavy pains transmitted in complete silence 
from parent to child.

I know all your kin, inside the home we can heal sorrow much better.

Threads made of pure blood weaving the fabric of health 
in our memory.

Bonds made of true blood, stories that cross each other 
in the clinic room.

Pedagogical Key

Usefulness of the genogram. The impact of the family life cycle.

Discussion Questions

Is the adolescent's symptom their own, or is it a manifestation of the suffering of the entire family system? How does a genogram help us diagnose somatization?

Concept Of Family-Centered Care

Among the fundamental tools of the general practitioner's clinical work, an important one is knowledge of the family health history. This data is essential for the comprehensive study of the patient. The family is the primary and determining context for the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of each of its members and is the primary social context for treating illness and promoting health. The family life cycle is an organizing concept that allows us to understand the sequential evolution of families and the transitional crises they experience as their members grow and develop. The genogram is an instrument or tool of the biopsychosocial model that provides information about the patient, their family, and their context, which implies prognostic value and useful information for the consultation. Creating the genogram fosters a therapeutic bond with the family, which implies a qualitative change in the relationship [10-18].