“I wanted to communicate my feelings freely”: a descriptive study of creative responses to enhance reflection in palliative medicine education

Abstract

BackgroundThe recent growth of arts and humanities in medical education shows recognition that these disciplines can facilitate a breadth of thinking and result in personal and professional growth. However creative work can be a challenge to incorporate into a busy curriculum. Offering the option of creative media as a way of reflecting is an example of how this can occur. This study aimed to examine the medical student response to being given this option to explore a visit to a patient in a hospice.MethodsThis was a mainly qualitative study. In the 2012 academic programme, the class of 86 students were given the option of using a creative medium to explore their responses to both the visit and their developing communication skills. Students were required to write an accompanying commentary if submitting the creative work option. Sixty-four percent of the class chose a creative medium e.g. poetry, visual art, narrative prose, music. These students were asked to take part in research including completing a short on-line survey and consenting for their creative work and commentaries to be further examined. The creative works were categorised by genre and the commentaries analysed using inductive thematic analysis.ResultsSeventeen students completed the on-line survey and fifteen consented to their work being used for this research. Thematic analysis of the student commentaries revealed the following themes: effectiveness for expressing emotion or ideas that are difficult to articulate; engaging and energising quality of the task; time for reflection; flexibility for individual learning styles and therapeutic value.ConclusionsTeaching the art of communicating at end-of-life is challenging especially when it involves patients, and teachers want to ensure students gain as much as possible from the experience. Offering the option to use creative media means that students can choose a medium for reflection that best suits them as individuals and that can enable them to benefit as much as possible from their experience.

Learning to care: medical students’ reported value and evaluation of palliative care teaching involving meeting patients and reflective writing

“…Students in several studies have acknowledged valuing the practical and experiential elements of teaching [26, 28]. Similar to the findings here, when it comes to reflective practice, students may find the writing element time consuming [29] and difficult to express emotions, suggesting that alternative and creative methods also be explored in teaching although these may be more complicated to assess [30]. …”

Poetry in teaching pharmacology: Exploring the possibilities

“…[4] Interestingly, positive remarks point toward the fact that attributes of affective domain were touched upon and expressed in words [Table 1] and may have acted as stress buster, as in reported earlier studies. [4] These strengths and limitations of poetry make it powerful tool, provided it is used skillfully because it is the mere skill that can help one convert disadvantages into advantages. [5]…”

“…Although the effort was premature and since the students had no earlier experience in poetry writing, yet the transformation of academic theme into a real life situation made theory more viable on paper and in their hearts. [4] It triggered a memory aspect that could not have been triggered by a teacher alone. Poetry writing and preparing verses are entirely different aspects.…”

“…It is here that it gives a whiff of relief, a freedom for in-depth exploration to those who wish to use language and verses as a media for expressing. [4] These tasks not only enable students to understand some of the varied real life applications of classroom teaching but also act as a reinforcer to establish a new memory circuit. [567]…”

Perceptions of alcohol use in the context of HIV treatment: a qualitative study

“…This study used a descriptive qualitative design to understand HIV infected individuals’ perceptions (“who, why, and how”) about alcohol use. 20 Patients recruited into the study were already on ART after receipt of counseling and testing. Almost a third of the participants (30%) had an AUD as defined by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (with a cutoff of 6 for females and 7 for males).…”