Abstract: The necessity of implementing aesthetic education in higher medical education has four points. Firstly, the general demand for aesthetic literacy among students in higher education institutions. Secondly, the close relationship between science and art. Thirdly, the fact that medicine has both humanistic and artistic attributes; and fourthly, the status quo of the development of medical education that emphasizes science and technology rather than the humanities. Poetry-based aesthetic education is an educational form that uses poetry as a means to achieve the goal of aesthetic education, is the application and practice of Chinese aesthetic spirit in contemporary aesthetic education, including in higher medical education. Its value and function in medical education mainly lie in promoting the cultivation of medical students' gentlemanly personality, the cultivation of their sensibility, and assisting in their moral and intellectual development.

Key words: poetry-based aesthetic education, medical education, personality cultivation, cultivation of sensibility, moral and intellectual development