Development of sensitivity to the needs and suffering of a sick person in students of medicine and dentistry.

Doctor and patient meet in a circle of feelings determined by suffering. Sensitivity to the suffering is an axis determining the nature of the doctor and patient relationship. The patient's experience of an illness is individual, private, and very often difficult to describe. But the possibility to understand the suffering of another person comes from the fact that suffering is a universal feeling. We propose to enter the world of patient's experience by writing a letter to a doctor, which would reflect their experiences and expectations towards him. This was the task required for 120 students of the second year of medicine and dentistry education.