scholarly journals Engaging heARTS: Developing an arts-based curriculum to enhance compassion and creativity in healthcare

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Nadine Frolic ◽  
Marilyn Swinton ◽  
Darla Biccum ◽  
Marybeth Leis Druery ◽  
Megan English ◽  
...  

In 2014-15 Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), with supportive funding from the Ontario Arts Council, partnered with a local group of professional artists to develop a curriculum called Awakening Your Creative Power: a seminar series on creativity, compassion and play. In order to understand the feasibility and impact of this arts-based curriculum for healthcare personnel working within a hospital, HHS undertook a comprehensive program evaluation. Input from participants who attended the course was obtained in three ways: (1) weekly evaluation forms at the end of each session (2) a final evaluation that asked questions about the overall seminar series, and (3) a focus group discussion held 2 weeks after the seminar series ended. This paper reports on the outcomes of the evaluation and the evolution of the curriculum over the past 3 years, including its impacts on both participants and the arts partners. The evaluation data demonstrate that the course was successful in meeting its stated objectives which include: enhancing interpersonal skills, fostering self-reflection, deepening compassion, cultivating resilience, recognizing creative potential, applying intention and coping with daily stresses through the power of play. In addition, the course also: increased self-awareness, fostered a sense of community, emphasized the value of creativity for its own sake, empowered participants, provided participants with a sense of accomplishment and made participants feel valued by the institution. The paper concludes with some reflections on the potential of engaging arts professionals in health professional education. 

Author(s):  
Margarete Finger-Ossinger ◽  
Henriette Löffler-Stastka

The required basic skills of European psychotherapists were published by the European Association of Psychotherapy in 2013. One of these abilities is self-reflection. To mentalize oneself, to reflect on what circumstances and experiences in the past and present have led to the present desires, thoughts and convictions is an essential prerequisite for professional work in the psychosocial field. With the help of the thematic analysis a data set of 41 self-reflection reports of students is analysed at the end of the training. Since the training should be evaluated and if necessary optimized, it should be examined which elements of the online preparation course make the selfreflection ability visible. The analysis of the students’ texts gives a clear indication of existing self-reflection skills. It was surprising that for some students, besides the great importance of self-awareness lessons, affective integration into the blended learning program was an essential impulse for self-reflection.


Author(s):  
Caroline Adewole

This article documents and explores the painful impact of a gruesome racial attack during the first lockdown in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It occurred less than a fortnight before the brutal murder of George Floyd in America. It is a reflection on the issue of racism and the marginalisation of less dominant groups in and outside the borders of Great Britain. It is the recognition and exploration in myself of an internalised colony of voices emerging as a response to the traumatic event. Tracking the intra-psychic and interpersonal dynamics involved in the racism and the subsequent attempt at an anti-racist answer leads to self-reflection on my part and the confrontation of my own bias. Eventually, I can feel my underlying vulnerability and the resulting shift. The sense of self-awareness and agency evolves into the mobilisation of an extensive mentalizing process. The article attempts to capture the subtle, insidious nature of othering and the fear behind the defences we use to keep this in place; the centrality of our capacity to courageously embrace our vulnerability as crucial to our ability to embrace and treat with dignity people who are different from us. The article touches on hopefulness that one day this socially constructed monster, racism, would be a thing of the past, not just on paper but in the human psyche also.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 465-476
Author(s):  
Marie Clancy

An autoethnographic stance has been taken in this paper as this methodology can be particularly useful when exploring complex feelings and unique lived experiences. The purpose of this paper is to use this stance to holistically explore a nursing journey writing poetry during times of personal and professional difficulty, with cathartic benefits. It is hoped this will provide an example and tool for other nurses to expand their learning, insight and understanding. Poems will be used as data in this paper, and data analysis and a reflective narrative and literature exploration described to help analyse their meaning. This may stimulate an empathetic understanding in the reader and give an in-depth insight into the challenging role of the children’s nurse. Poetry will be used to explore some of the typical features of autoethnography, namely self-portrayal, context, and culture with self-reflection, and by providing poetry that encourages reader exploration. Poetry has the potential to benefit nursing, including enhanced self-awareness and coping mechanisms as well as the development of empathy to support patients, families and colleagues. The use of personal poetry with reflective narrative provides an illuminating expansion of the experiences described, which may encourage readers to explore their own emotions and reflect in new and different ways.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107815522098557
Author(s):  
Matthew J Yacobucci ◽  
Christina L Lombardi ◽  
Laurie L Briceland

Introduction Student pharmacists contribute meaningfully to patient care during Advanced Practice Pharmacy Experiences (APPEs) in varied settings. We aimed to characterize and evaluate the impact of student participation in hematology-oncology (hem-onc) APPEs on the practice site, and on student professionalization. Methods For students completing hem-onc APPEs during 2016–2019, rotation activities and post-APPE self-reflections describing meaningful impact were reviewed; activities were categorized into direct and indirect patient care, and up to three reflection themes of professionalization impact were extracted from each self-reflection. Hem-onc preceptor cohort was surveyed to assess impact of student contributions on the practice site. Results 171 students completed hem-onc APPEs in ambulatory care (133) and/or inpatient (38) settings. Of 932 student-reported activities, the most common were: evaluating patient pharmacotherapy (209), providing education to medical staff (132), patient counseling [non-chemotherapy (99); chemotherapy (82)], and providing drug information (96); 89% involved direct patient care/education. Survey results from 16 of 33 preceptors identified the most impactful student activities as evaluating pharmacotherapy, medication education/adherence resources, and in-service presentations. Of 392 student self-reflections, themes of impact focused on professionalization/self-awareness (39.3%), counseling/communication skills (27.8%), practice skills development (20.4%) and collaborative teamwork (12.5%). Conclusion Pharmacy students make significant direct patient care contributions to hem-onc practice settings by evaluating pharmacotherapy and providing education to patients and healthcare personnel. Participation in hem-onc APPEs is highly influential to the professionalization of students, particularly in developing skills in oncology practice, patient interactions/communications, and developing self-awareness.


2017 ◽  
pp. 385-397
Author(s):  
N. O. Sadovnikova ◽  
◽  
T. B. Sergeeva ◽  
A. A. Tolstykh ◽  
◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-130
Author(s):  
Pavithra Nagarajan

This article explores how a single-sex school for boys of color intentionally and unintentionally (re)defines masculinity through rules and rituals. The school’s mission posits that boys become men through developing three skills: selfregulation, self-awareness, and self-reflection. Drawing from qualitative research data, I examine how disciplinary practices prioritize boys’ ability to control their bodies and image, or “self-regulate.” When boys fail to self-regulate, they enter the punitive system. School staff describe self-regulation as integral to out-of-school success, but these practices may inadvertently reproduce negative labeling and control of black bodies. This article argues for school cultural practices that affirm, rather than deny, the benefits of boyhood.


Author(s):  
Geeta Shinde

Now a day’sparents, teachers,students,institutes,policy makers,and politicians also talking about life skills. They consider that “We should not give the only a text book knowledge to our child, we should provide them all skills which required for excellent life .If you want to say say I am human or we are social animals then you must acquire the skills which defined by the WHO.These are known as communication,critical thinking, creativity, self-awareness, decision making, problem solving,empathy, interpersonal relationship ,these all require for coping with stress and coping with emotions.This paper is focus based on literature reviews,how this skills are nurtured not only our education system overall human life. Along with trying to focus life skill policy and practices.


Author(s):  
Tom McLeish

‘I could not see any place in science for my creativity or imagination’, was the explanation, of a bright school leaver to the author, of why she had abandoned all study of science. Yet as any scientist knows, the imagination is essential to the immense task of re-creating a shared model of nature from the scale of the cosmos, through biological complexity, to the smallest subatomic structures. Encounters like that one inspired this book, which takes a journey through the creative process in the arts as well as sciences. Visiting great creative people of the past, it also draws on personal accounts of scientists, artists, mathematicians, writers, and musicians today to explore the commonalities and differences in creation. Tom McLeish finds that the ‘Two Cultures’ division between the arts and the sciences is not after all, the best classification of creative processes, for all creation calls on the power of the imagination within the constraints of form. Instead, the three modes of visual, textual, and abstract imagination have woven the stories of the arts and sciences together, but using different tools. As well as panoramic assessments of creativity, calling on ideas from the ancient world, medieval thought, and twentieth-century philosophy and theology, The Poetry and Music of Science illustrates its emerging story by specific close-up explorations of musical (Schumann), literary (James, Woolf, Goethe) mathematical (Wiles), and scientific (Humboldt, Einstein) creation. The book concludes by asking how creativity contributes to what it means to be human.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Lindert ◽  
Ulrike Neuendorf ◽  
Marta Natan ◽  
Ingo Schäfer

Abstract Background Syrians have been the largest group of refugees in Germany since 2014. Little is known about Syrian refugees` perspectives on substance use. The aim of this study is to investigate the perspective of male refugees from Syria and to foster specific knowledge and understanding of substance use. Methods We applied a qualitative study design. Five semi-structured focus group discussions with a total of 19 refugees were conducted in 2019 among the difficult to reach population of Syrian refugees. Audio recordings were translated and transcribed. We used a hybrid approach by integrating inductive and deductive thematic frameworks. Results We identified common themes. Firstly, refugees perceived that substances are widely available and accepted in Germany. Secondly, refugees perceived that rules and norms in Germany differ from rules and norms in the home country and favor availability of substances. Thirdly, substance use is related to the intention to escape the past. Fourthly, substance use is related to living in the present through connecting with others and being part of the community. Finally, mental health professional treatment for substance use is associated with shame. Conclusions Findings support Syrian refugees` perspectives of substance use as a way of both escaping the past and coping with psychosocial difficulties in the present in a socio-ecological understanding. Understanding the explanatory model of Syrian refugees can inform future interventions to prevent substance abuse and design tailored interventions. Further studies with Syrian refugees in more countries are needed to better understand resettled refugees` perspectives on substance use.


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