There is strong evidence supporting the personal and professional benefits for medical students of exposure to art. There is limited information on the value or potential role of art-making in relation to medical education. We explored the role of art-making within medical education by analyzing 76 artist statements submitted with visual artwork by students, residents, and practitioners to a national health care student/practitioner art exhibit. We analyzed the data inductively using grounded theory strategies and this generated eight themes: enhancing learning, escaping constraints, balancing life and work, surviving, expressing self identity and discovering professional identity, bearing witness, healing self and others, and advocating change. These themes attest to the instrumental, humanistic and other impacts of art-making in the context of medical education and practice. In this interactive session, we will draw upon research findings from a recent qualitative study to show how the practice of art-making can play a valuable role in the education of health professionals. We will also explore several stories of how art-making has offered a powerful humanizing influence through fostering new insight, increasing empathy and enhancing communicative and relational competence amongst students in the health professions. A selection of images of artworks created by medical students will be used to stimulate dialogue amongst session participants and elicit ideas about how art-making could be incorporated into many aspects of health professions education. These ideas will be recorded live in a mind-map and made available to participants after the session along with a list of resources.
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Kumagai, A.K. (2012). Perspective: Acts of interpretation: A philosophical approach to using creative arts in medical education. Academic Medicine. 87, 1138-1144.
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