It is imperative that medical students are taught how to treat patients with love and understand, a medical professor has argued. 

From next year, Trinity will assess students on how they interact with their patients. 

On Moncrieff, Kildare GP Dr Brendan O’Shea and Trinity Adjunct Professor in General Practice said being a doctor is “not easy” but a good bedside manner is key. 

“We need to teach love,” he explained. 

“It doesn't sound like a great place to be at, has it come to this, but I think there's a very honest imperative behind it. 

“Should love be explicitly stated as a core concept in the medical curriculum?”

Trinity College, Dublin. Picture by: dbtravel / Alamy Stock Photo.

Dr O’Shea continued that there are “lot of ways” that love can be taught. 

“If we're not careful, the whole curriculum can be exclusively science-based,” he said. 

“You can encourage and require and request people to go back and read some of the great literature, to critically watch some of the great movies with great stories in them, to dip into art.

“So, you can go about it that way by reaching into the artistic disciplines again. 

“And we have been guilty of turning our back on them, I think. So that's a simple, straightforward way to do it.”

Main image: A medical doctor with an upset patient. Picture by: Alamy.com.