Creative Arts

The creative arts can relate to many forms of the arts embodied in action and practice among them (but not restricted to) drama, dance and musical performance, visual arts, writing, publishing, graphic arts, cartooning, film, multi media and design.

In Humane

To be humane is to have or show compassion or benevolence.

Being concerned with the alleviation of suffering.

To interact with care, consideration and respect.

Medicine

the word medicine is from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing.

Broadly speaking the practice of medicine is to be

active in the prevention and treatment of illness.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Can Fabric Art Foster Empathy in Medical Students?

Research by André Smith, Department of Sociology, University of Victoria explores the experiences of first- and second-year medical students who participated in a learning intervention that used fabric art and role-playing to foster the acquisition of empathy skills for end-of-life care. The intervention centers on students' engagement with artwork by renowned artist Deidre Scherer, who depicts the processes of aging, dying, and grieving in her work. Data was collected from qualitative interviews with students and from observations of students' participation in the intervention. The students reported experiencing intense feelings of empathy toward the patients depicted in the artwork. Based on these experiences, they successfully formulated empathetic responses that took into account the imagined perspectives of these patients. We conclude that this learning intervention effectively cultivated empathy in the medical students who took part in the study.

More about this research at
http://www.ijcaip.com/archives/IJCAIP-10-Smith.html