The Visual Art to Improve Skills for Paediatrics Staff
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12974/2311-8687.2023.11.04Keywords:
Medical Humanities, Visual Art, Stress Management, EmpathyAbstract
In healthcare working contexts, individuals are required to have a set of transversal skills that can be distinguished in technical-specialist, communicative-relational and organizational-management skills. This is the reason why interprofessional training has become a requirement in hospital wards. Art has been shown to be effective tools in educating medical students and healthcare professionals to a better self-awareness, reflective practice with the aim of better communication with the patient, better stress management, less burn-out etc. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of art as a tool for the development of useful skills as observation, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, tolerance of ambiguity in paediatric practice.
Method: The staff of the Umberto I paediatric department’s staff was chosen to be enrolled: 2 paediatricians, 3 nurses and 2 residents. A control group of 4 nurses and 1 resident was included in the study. The involved personnel participated in 4 to 8 one-hour meetings in two months. During these meetings, works of art were proposed by applying the method of Visual Thinking Strategies and other useful art practices to reinforce active listening and empathy. Validated test, VTSKill grid, was administered to evaluate the improvement of skills.
Results: The comparison between pre and post-tests gave positive results in terms of Critical Thinking, Observation, Linguistic expression, problem solving and therefore analysis and communication skills. Same results were not recorded in the personnel who did not participate in the activities, registering in some cases a regression from the initial test.
Conclusion: This experience, although realized with few participants, confirmed other experiences that have been suggesting Medical Humanities and in particular the Visual Art as a tool to improve useful skills and relationships within the staff of hospital departments. According to our experience, we believe improvement of some skills can be useful in the paediatric practice where the use of attentive listening, observation skills, communication through visual aids can improve the relationship with young patients and their families.
References
Mukunda N, Moghbeli N, Rizzo A, Niepold S, Bassett B, DeLisser M H. Visual art instruction in medical education: a narrative review. Medical Education Online. 2019, 24: 1, 1558657. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2018.1558657 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2018.1558657
Wellbery C, McAteer RA. The Art of Observation: A Pedagogical Framework. Acad Med. 2015; 90(12): 1624-30. 10. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000801 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000801
Perry M, Maffulli N, Willson S, Morrissey D. The effectiveness of arts-based interventions in medical education: a literature review. Med Educ. 2011; 45(2): 141-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03848.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03848.x
De Santis S, Giuliani C, Staffoli C, Ferrara V. Visual Thinking Strategies in nursing: A systematic review. Senses and Sciences. 2016; 3(4): 297-302.
Ferrara V, De Santis S, Staffoli C, Art and Medicine: from anatomic studies to Visual Thinking Strategies, Senses and Sciences 2015; 2(1): 40-44
Hailey D, Miller A, Yenawine P. Understanding visual literacy: The visual thinking strategies approach. In D. M. Baylen, & A. D'Alba (eds.), Visualizing learning: essentials of teaching and integrating visual and media literacy. New York: Springer. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_3
Miller A, Grohe M, Khoshbin S, Kats JT. From the galleries to the clinic: applying art museum lessons to patient care. J Med Humanit. 2013; 34(4): 433-438. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-013-9250-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-013-9250-8
Klugman CM, Peel J, Beckmann-Mendez D. Art rounds: teaching interprofessional students visual thinking strategies at one school. Acad Med 2011; 86 (10): 1266-1271. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0b013e31822c1427 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0b013e31822c1427
Reilly JM, Ring J, Duke L. Literature and the arts in medical education. Fam Med. 2005; 37(4): 250-252.
Gurwin J, Revere KE, Niepold S, et al. A randomized controlled study of art observation training to improve medical student ophthalmology skills. Ophthalmology 2018; 125(1): 8-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2017.06.031 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2017.06.031
Overview: Artful Thinking. [cited 2018 Mar 1]. Available from: http://pzartfulthinking.org/?page_id=5
Project Zero. Artful thinking final report. Harvard Grad Sch Educ. 2006; 115. Available from: http://www.pz .harvard.edu/sites/default/files/ArtfulThinkingFinalReport-1.pdf
Naghshineh S, Hafler JP, Miller AR, Blanco MA, Lipsitz SR, Dubroff RP, Khoshbin S., Katz JT Formal art observation training improves medical students' visual diagnostic skills. Journal Of General Internal Medicine.2008; 23: 991-997. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0667-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0667-0
Bolwerk A, Mack-Andrick J, Lang FR, Dörfler A, Maihöfner C. How art changes your brain: differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity. PLoS One. 2014; 9(7): e101035. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101035 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101035
Mangione S, Chakraborti C, Staltari G, Harrison R, Tunkel AR, Liou KT, Cerceo E, Voeller M, Bedwell WL, Fletcher K, Kahn MJ. Medical Students' Exposure to the Humanities Correlates with Positive Personal Qualities and Reduced Burnout: A Multi-Institutional U.S. Survey. J Gen Intern Med. 2018; 33(5): 628-634. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-017-4275-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-017-4275-8
Ferrara V., De Santis S., Melchiori F.M. Art for improving skills in medical education: The validation of a scale for measuring the visual thinking strategies method in "La Clinica Terapeutica", 2020; 171(3): e253-e259.
Moorman, M. The meaning of Visual Thinking Strategies for Nursing Students. Humanities, 2015; 4(4): 748-759. https://doi.org/10.3390/h4040748 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/h4040748
Jasani, S. and Saks, N. Utilizing visual art to enhance the clinical observation skills of medical students. Medical Teacher, 2013; 35(7): 327-331. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2013.770131 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2013.770131
Ferrara V, Shaholli D, Iovino A, Cavallino S, Colizzi MA, Della Rocca C, La Torre G. Visual Thinking Strategies as a Tool for Reducing Burnout and Improving Skills in Healthcare Workers: Results of a Randomized Controlled Study. J. Clin. Med 2022; 11: 7501. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11247501 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11247501