Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. Mattie was in his first month of treatment, yet his art therapists already knew what he liked to do at the art table in the outpatient clinic. They understood he loved Scooby Doo. So they literally traced a Scooby Doo scene on a ceiling tile and invited Mattie to paint it in. This was a project that all three of us did together and when it was done, the tile went up on the ceiling of a clinic room. Mattie spent many hours in that clinic room not feeling well, so we had ample time to admire his artistic style. But the point to the story was the role art played in our lives during treatment. It kept us talking, working together, and was an outstanding diversion from dealing with the stress of cancer.
Quote of the day: Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist. ~ Eileen Miller
medical profession.
If you wish to read this article for yourself, click on:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-med-schools-requiring-art-classes
Certainly we aren't going to our physicians for their knowledge or perspective on art. But that is not why art is being integrated into medical curriculum. Instead, through viewing, creating, and interpreting art, medical students have been found to develop better communication with patients by developing insights on subjects like mental illness and cognitive bias.
I think there are many reasons why the human component of medicine has been removed from the profession. One reason is for self preservation purposes. If doctors separate themselves from the person, then it becomes a whole lot easier to just look at data and facts and treat that accordingly. After all dealing with human emotions and reactions to treatment is time consuming and labor intensive. However, without understanding the person's thoughts, lifestyle, and feelings, it becomes very hard to effectively prescribe and treat a person medically. Another reason is students are rewarded in their medical training for being dispassionate and neutral and are flagged when they spend too much time with their patients talking. Third, the sheer fact of timing and demand must be factored in. Doctors are expected to see a countless number of patients in a short period of time, making it logistically impossible to get to observe and listen to patients. In fact, health insurers reward doctors for doing just that.... seeing patients and arriving at a diagnosis quickly.
In a medical training program at Penn State, art has been a part of their curriculum since the 1960's. It was the first medical school in the Country to provide such holistic experiences. For example, in a course at Penn State, one student is given a postcard with a famous Impressionist painting on it, while the other student, who cannot see the card, stands at a canvas with a paintbrush in hand, and must ask their partner questions about the painting in order to reproduce it. The painter becomes like the physician who’s taking a history and trying to get information from the patient. They experience firsthand how much easier it is to gain information when you ask open-ended questions, when you stop and let that patient tell their story.
When Dr. Flanagan (a professor at Penn State who teaches fourth year med students) was interviewed, he said, "it’s not just a nice idea to incorporate humanities into medical schools to make the education more interesting. It’s protecting and maintaining students’ empathy so that by the time they go off to practice medicine, they’re still empathetic individuals.” He notes that while medical students traditionally enter their first year with very high levels of empathy, after three years, research has shown, the exposure to content around death and suffering can cause those levels to plummet. Engagement in the humanities can rectify this problem.
At the most basic level, these exercises in close observation help to improve diagnostic skills—priming students to identify visual symptoms of illness or injury in patients, and (hopefully) preventing them from making misguided assumptions. But it’s also about delving beneath face value. I am pleased to hear about the integration of art into medical curriculum, because my experiences with healthcare clearly illustrates that something is just NOT right. There is a huge disconnect from doctors and their patients and I believe doctors miss over 75% of what is going on with a patient because the doctor doesn't spend the time getting to know the person in front of them.
In addition to a diagnosis and treatment issue that can result from this lack of communication, the issue of trust and adherence to treatment also comes into play. If we feel like our doctor isn't listening and getting to know us, how compliant will we be with his/her orders? The answer is compliance/adherence is severely impacted.
Overall, I can count on one hand the number of doctors I have experienced in my lifetime who take the time to listen and have empathy and compassion. What rolls around in my mind is the countless times Mattie complained of pain while in the hospital. Instead of the majority of doctors taking it seriously, they instead told me.... It's not possible. They pronounced that Mattie was either addicted to pain meds or was manipulating me. At the end of the day, they were VERY wrong. I wonder if they ever reflect back on their poor behavior with me or their clear misjudgment???? I am sure not!!! But that's a problem. No reflection, no processing, and no learning from one patient to another. Frankly I am not sure an art class can change this! You can train a person to learn skills, but you can't train a person to be HUMAN. You either have it or you don't and in my opinion the medical profession sifts out those who have this humanistic quality.
No comments:
Post a Comment