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Posts Tagged ‘doctors’

Art Class for Doctors in Training

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 26, 2018| 6 Comments »

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Photo: Chip Thomas, MD, Indian Health Services
“My interest in documentary photography has helped sensitize me to the living conditions and quality of life of my patient population. … To the extent that they’re comfortable with me taking photos, I use these visits as an opportunity to document their lives.” More at the artist-physician’s website, here.

You probably wouldn’t want your doctor to care more about her artwork than helping patients, but a well-rounded physician is likely to bring more depth to medicine.

Jennifer Sokolowsky writes at the Seattle Times that art is becoming part of doctors’ education at Virginia Mason Medical Center in the state of Washington. The idea is to help physicians build both their observational skills and their empathy.

“One afternoon [in June],”  Sokolowsky reports, “a group of Virginia Mason doctors huddled, discussing a man who seemed to be in pain. Instead of being in a hospital, however, the doctors were at Seattle Art Museum, peering closely at the 1930s painting ‘Morning’ by Pacific Northwest artist Morris Graves.

“The painting, showing a man lying uncomfortably on a wood floor, portrayed pain in a way that was familiar to the group. …

“ ‘I thought, “Wow, this is a man I’ve seen before in our emergency room, suffering and sick,” ‘ said Dr. Laura Saganic, a Virginia Mason resident physician.

“The discussion prompted another in the group to observe that when they see their patients, they often don’t think about the patient’s circumstances before coming to the hospital. ‘Were they lying on a hardwood floor, were they in a tent?’ Saganic said.

“Building such observational skills and empathy — so critical to the physician’s art — is one of the goals of a relatively new program that exposes doctors at Virginia Mason Medical Center to arts education at Seattle Art Museum (SAM). …

“This kind of training helps address the fact that modern medical education often focuses much more on the factual side of healing, rather than balancing that knowledge with the kind of intuition and empathy the best medical practitioners can bring. …

“One artwork on the itinerary was ‘William Forbes M.D. (Professor Forbes, the Anatomist),’ a 1905 painting by Thomas Eakins. … The discussion ranged from how an understanding of human anatomy is important to both art and medicine, to the evolution of patients’ rights. …

“After last year’s pilot program, [rheumatologist Amish Dave, who spearheads the program] said, ‘We got a lot of feedback and learned that the residents wanted to spend more time thinking about emotions.”

Wow, that statement stands out to me. It gives me hope for the world to be reminded how common it is nowadays to acknowledge the importance of emotions. That is one of the “little” things we overlook amid the barrage of headlines tending to show humanity sliding backwards. More at the Seattle Times, here.

Do tell me your stories of medical providers’ outside interests, artistic or otherwise.

Photo: Chip Thomas, MD
Navajo women with a newborn goat.

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Empathy in Hospitals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 15, 2018| 4 Comments »

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Photo: Thomas Jefferson University Photo Services
Medical professionals develop their empathetic side at a 2017 Netter Symposium in Philadelphia.

I’m back to writing the usual posts that link to interesting articles. This one is especially appropriate, given my recent experience as a hospital visitor. The article is about techniques for “teaching” empathy to medical people, but I have to say I think every worker in that hospital was born empathetic. From the security personnel and cleaners to the brain surgeon and night nurses, it was amazing to experience how kind everyone was, and I wonder if it’s just the culture of that hospital.

Be that as it may, there are initiatives everywhere to help medical professionals develop their empathy “gene.” An article at a “platform for theatremakers” called HowlRound is about using drama for that purpose.

“As theatre folk know well, sometimes the most meaningful creations are borne out of the fruit of circumstance. To wit, the Lantern Theater Company in Center City, Philadelphia, happens to be located around the corner from the Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC) of Thomas Jefferson University. In 2012, Charles McMahon, artistic director of the Lantern, and Dr. Salvatore Mangione, pulmonologist and director of physical diagnosis and history of medicine at SKMC, started discussing a way to make the most of that physical proximity — and potentially change the course of modern medicine while they were at it.

“Together, along with artistic colleagues Craig Getting and Kittson O’Neill, they developed a curriculum for what became the Empathy Project. [Mangione] and the team believed that ‘in addition to preventing burnout, and giving [students] more comfort with empathy and ambiguity, it might give them a different brain and help them become a better physician.’ …

“Part of the program focuses on playwriting. This section asks students to not only learn the technical tools of dramatic storytelling, but also to make a personal investment in the work they are creating. It helps break students out of their comfort zones by encouraging them to write about a truth that goes unsaid in their community. …

“Many of the project’s exercises have roots in Meisner work, including improv technique to facilitate open listening and taking stock of one’s ‘baseline self.’ This combination of listening and self-awareness supplies the building blocks of empathy, asking students to consider themselves and each other with perhaps more generosity and less competitiveness. …

“Plays written by students for the Empathy Project have dealt with wide-ranging topics such as immigrant experience, class issues, what it feels like to be a Muslim in America, the recent death of a parent, ethics of patient privacy, and doctors confronting cadavers. O’Neill avows she has learned more about the Muslim American experience in her class at Jefferson than she has anywhere else in her life.

“Getting believes some of the most fundamental questions playwrights ask during their writing process can easily be applied to doctors working with patients. These include: What are the given circumstances of this person? Who is supporting them or not supporting them? How do you get your audience to feel the emotions you want them to feel? How do you structure the telling of information that is at the right pace and is clear? As a result, students taking part in the Empathy Project reported seeing their patients in the hospital the way a playwright would see them.”

More here.

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These Doctors Want Less Pay

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 21, 2018| 2 Comments »

Photo: Caiaimage/Robert Daly
Canadian doctors who want less pay think the money would be better spent elsewhere.

At first blush, it seems counterintuitive that doctors would reject more money, but like the Oklahoma teachers who went on strike after getting a raise, they were concerned about the priorities of the whole system.

Catherine Clifford reports at CNBC, “In Canada, more than 500 doctors and residents, as well as over 150 medical students, have signed a public letter protesting their own pay raises.

” ‘We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,’ the letter says.

“The group say they are offended that they would receive raises when nurses and patients are struggling.

” ‘These increases are all the more shocking because our nurses, clerks and other professionals face very difficult working conditions, while our patients live with the lack of access to required services because of the drastic cuts in recent years and the centralization of power in the Ministry of Health,’ reads the letter, which was published February 25. …

“Canada has a public health system which provides ‘universal coverage for medically necessary health care services provided on the basis of need, rather than the ability to pay,’ the government’s website says.

“The 213 general practitioners, 184 specialists, 149 resident medical doctors and 162 medical students … ‘believe that there is a way to redistribute the resources of the Quebec health system to promote the health of the population and meet the needs of patients without pushing workers to the end,’ the letter says.

” ‘We, Quebec doctors, are asking that the salary increases granted to physicians be canceled and that the resources of the system be better distributed for the good of the health care workers and to provide health services worthy to the people of Quebec.’ …

“On February 1, the [Médecins Québécois pour le Régime Public] published a letter denouncing working conditions of nurses. ‘The nurses are exhausted by a heavy workload. They argue that the chronic lack of staff and the fatigue caused by repeated overtime, sometimes mandatory, for lack of replacement of the team, have an impact on the safety of patient care,.’ ”

More here, at CNBC. I’m impressed by how well these doctors appreciate that overworking nurses and staff can interfere with their own jobs — and with patient outcomes.

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