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Table of Contents
Introduction Growing Support for the Arts in Healthcare Artists on the Wards Conclusion All Resources After seven years of working with the Artists on the Wards program, I am convinced that the success and ability to affect patient-outcomes is directly related to the experience, training, and skill-level of the artists on staff. Although our five Artists-on-the-Wards staff are supported by volunteer artists, the success and growth of the program is owed to the specialization, professionalism, and facilitation skills of the staff artists. Several years spent specializing in a particular medium cultivates the wide repertoire of mature and engaging activities that is crucial to interesting apathetic patients or caregivers. Seeking out artists who continue to practise in their discipline at least part-time brings added credibility to the program, attracting interest from other patients, not to mention medical and nursing staff. Experience in teaching or coaching fosters the sensitivity and facilitation skills to deal with patients who are in pain, bored, distracted, and depressed. The artists’ skill level in an arts medium and experience in facilitation will become a seminal issue again, as the Friends embark on programming arts-based workshops for nursing and medical staff. This is the Friends’ opportunity to share the pleasure, wonder, and transcendental quality of writing and art-making with medical and nursing staff. The nursing and medical staff, as professionals, will expect professionalism, and generally, a high level of training and an ability to teach. Our power to illustrate that creative expression can foster joy, peace, and transcendence is directly related to the facilitator’s skill. Can artists at the bedside help reduce patients’ pain perception, anxiety, fear, and depression? Can artists at the bedside reduce patients’ use of sedatives and pain and anti-depressant medications? Can artists at the bedside reduce the length of patients’ stay? And can artists at the bedside foster a healthier lifestyle? More and more studies are being released that address these questions. In the meantime, a tremendous wealth of anecdotal evidence is being shared in the arts-in-healthcare sector. All of these pieces of evidence are grains of sand. And, in looking at these grains of sand, eventually we see a beach — a view of something larger that is forming. All Resources |
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