Teaching clinical problem solving using literary examples.

Clinical reasoning is a complex topic, especially since real-life situations often present confusing or irrelevant data. Teaching clinical problem-solving is therefore an exercise in systematic analysis. One way of finding thought-provoking examples is to look at non-medical literature, where many 'case histories' can be found. Using the poem "Minerva Jones" as an example, this process is described as it was undertaken by fourth year medical students at Dalhousie University.