Using Art and Creativity in Medical Education
Art can play an important role in medical education.
We learn faster and retain information better in sensory rich environments, when we feel relaxed, are enjoying the experience and the knowledge feels important.
The use of art in teaching can create more salient experiences promoting neuroplasticity and amplifying the social, emotional and cognitive elements of learning.
Art helps us access and express parts of ourselves that are often unavailable to other forms of human interaction.
Art flies below the radar, delivering nourishment for our soul and returning with stories from the unconscious.
A world without art is an inhuman world.
Making and consuming art lifts our spirits and keeps us sane.
Art, like science and religion, helps us make meaning from our lives, and to make meaning is to make us feel better.
Grayson Perry
We should think of art as an activity that enhances our wellbeing by changing our biology and emotional state.
Background
Art has long been used in medicine as a resource for learning and the practice of medicine itself is often described as an art.
C P Snow (a novelist and chemist) presented the BBC’s Reith Lecture in 1959 on ‘The Two Cultures’. He called for increased dialogue between the scientific and artistic communities. There have been significant steps towards reuniting the worlds of science and art but there is still much to be done to harness the power of the arts in medical education and healthcare.
Medical training is usually conducted from a scientific perspective. This view is essential but monochromatic. The care of patients can be enhanced by viewing the world from other perspectives. Art helps clinicians appreciate these other perspectives and develops skills of curiosity and creativity resulting in wiser, kinder and more compassionate clinicians who are more likely to flourish in work.
Art resources are useful in teaching because they:
Broaden learners’ experience and exposure to other worlds
Help learners see the world from different perspectives
Help learners make sense of the world
Break down cultural barriers and explore biases
Deepen understanding of an individual’s experience of illness
Develop observational, descriptive, and problem-solving skills
Help learners explore the challenge of managing uncertainty
Provide challenge that does not rely on medical experience/knowledge
Reflect real life
It used to be thought that the two halves of the brain were responsible for different skills, with traditional medical education developing skills associated with left-brain function, and more creative activity with right-brain activity. This brain laterality is no longer considered to reflect what happens in the brain when we learn. Modern scanning techniques have shown that when our brains are exposed to art whole neural pathways are stimulated that help us learn, make sense of our world and find meaning. Good patient care and clinician wellbeing relies on the development of both sets of skills which is why art should be integrated into undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.
