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Research Themes
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The Arts and Health II:Use of the Arts in Health Professional Education April 2007
Challenges and Opportunities |
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The Arts and Health:
Use of the Arts in Health Professional Education Table of Contents Introduction Examples of Use of the Arts in Medical and Health Education Challenges and Opportunities Conclusion Boylan (1998) states that, “while it is counterproductive to de-emphasize the biosciences to health, it is prudent to increase the visibility of the humanistic aspects of health and care to facilitate a balance in our understanding of what constitutes health and how healthcare should be provided.” The development of medical humanities programs in Canada over the past 15 years suggests positive movement in this direction. A strategic approach to networking and information-sharing would support growth and development in this area. It would also be helpful to systematically survey use of arts-related activities to assess the extent and ways in which they have been incorporated in health sciences education in Canada and to explore how the arts are valued. In 2004, a group of medical students at Dalhousie University organized a medical humanities symposium at the annual meeting of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and Canadian Association for Medical Education. (In May 2007, several sessions on the medical humanities will be held at this meeting, including one on use of the humanities in interprofessional health.) In 2005, during the Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry welcomed delegates each evening to a different medium of medical humanities engagement, including performance poetry, visual arts, storytelling, music, and a full-length play written by one of the medical students (Mayne, 2005). Dalhousie’s Medical Humanities Program is hosting a “Celebrating Medical Humanities Days,” in May 2007. Such meetings offer a welcome opportunity to explore activity and emerging ideas. Medical humanities organizations recently introduced in the UK and Australia provide an opportunity to learn from those in other countries who are working in this area. Ars Medica: A Journal of Medicine, the Arts, and Humanities and the Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education eNews/ Journal, along with other dedicated sections, such as “The Left Atrium” in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, offer opportunities for exploring interconnections between art, health, and medicine in Canada. A forthcoming issue of the Journal of Health Psychology, co-edited by Michael Murray (Memorial) and Ross Gray (Sunnybrook), is focused on intersections between the arts, humanities, health and healthcare. A recent book of stories of medical trainees from across Canada, In Our Hands: On Becoming a Doctor (Clarke & Nisker, 2007) illustrates how narrative reflection informs compassionate care. “Musa,” a column about the arts and humanities in medical and health education is being introduced in the University of Alberta Health Sciences Journal. The online “Literature, Arts and Medicine Database” supported by New York University is a widely cited resource that offers descriptions of literature, art, and films considered valuable for medical humanities teaching. The Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine program at the University of Alberta is developing a database of published work on the use of arts and humanities in healthcare education. A close connection between medicine and the arts is demonstrated by the accomplishments of noted writers and poets who also work in the health professions. Vincent Lam, emergency physician and recent winner of the Giller Prize, Canada’s premier literary award for fiction, provides such an example, along with Canadian writer and physician, Kevin Patterson, who authored the award-winning novel Consumption. Likewise, many noted artists have offered insights into experience of illness, disease and healthcare. Sarah Polley’s film, Away from Her (2006), based on a short story by Alice Munro; Robertson Davies’ A Cunning Man (1994); Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (1992 novel and 1996 film); and Robert Pope’s cancer paintings (1991) offer examples. Photographs of frail, housebound, elderly patients taken by Mark Nowaczynski, a noted photographer and family physician in Toronto, have been profiled in an award-winning documentary film by the National Film Board called House Calls. Numerous Canadian plays have addressed health-related topics. Artists of various genres (visual artists, dancers, writers, storytellers) have been invited to teach courses and work with students and staff on arts-based projects at a number of medical schools, often as artists-in-residence while creating their own work. Shirley Serviss, a writer and poet, serves as an example of this at the University of Alberta. The literature-base in this area is in the early stages of development. Much of the literature focuses on the literary and visual arts, primarily in medical and nursing education. Descriptive articles comprise of the bulk of this literature. An opportunity exists to contribute to learning theory in medical education, as well as theorizing regarding the benefits of arts participation. In addition, significant opportunities exist for interdisciplinary inquiry between medical and health educators, arts educators, and those involved in the arts policy, to enhance understanding across these areas of practice. Further to this, arts-based inquiry represents a newly emerging research practice which involves use of visual, performative, narrative, and musical forms to develop new understandings (Bochner & Ellis, 2002; Cole, Neilsen, Knowles, & Luciani, 2006; Finley & Knowles, 1995; McNiff, 1998). In Canada, Jeff Nisker (Nisker, Martin, Bluhm, & Daar, 2006), Ross Gray (Gray & Sinding, 2003), and Heidi Janz (2007) have made important contributions to medical and health education through theatre. At the University of Alberta, Marie Cave and Jean Clandinin have organized reading circles, in which physicians-in-training reflect on published books and stories related to health and healthcare and, in turn, share their own stories, following a narrative inquiry approach that Dr. Clandinin developed for teacher-education (Cave & Clandinin, 2007). Given all that has been outlined in the foregoing, an opportunity exists to develop interdisciplinary learning experiences involving arts students and health-sciences students in shared learning activities or shared experience regarding such collaborations. This would help to promote dialogue and understanding across spheres of knowledge and practice. Conclusion |
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