https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7424-919X
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ABSTRACT
Purpose
We implemented and evaluated a hybrid 4-week arts-based elective for clinical medical students to support flourishing.
Materials and Methods
Five students participated in early 2022. Twelve sessions occurred in-person at art museums and other cultural centers, and five occurred online. Sessions incorporated varied arts-based learning activities, including Visual Thinking Strategies, a jazz seminar, and a mask-making workshop. We evaluated the course via weekly reflective essays, interviews 6 weeks after the course, and pre-post surveys that included four scales with clinical relevance: capacity for wonder (CfW), tolerance for ambiguity (TFA), interpersonal reactivity index, and openness to diversity.
Results
Qualitatively, the course helped learners: 1) reconnect with individual characteristics and interests that had been neglected during medical education; 2) better appreciate others’ perspectives; 3) develop identities as physicians; and 4) engage in quiet reflection, renewing their sense of purpose. Quantitatively, pre-post mean totals increased for the CfW (32.0 [SD 6.8] vs 44.0 [SD 5.7], p=.006) and TFA scales (16.4 [SD 5.2] vs 24.2 [SD 6.9], p=.033).
Conclusions
This elective facilitated learners’ connecting with themselves, others, and their profession with improvement in clinically-relevant measures. This provides further evidence that arts-based education can foster professional identity formation and be transformative for students.
Disclosure statement
Dr. Chisolm is the Director of the Paul McHugh Program for Flourishing, through which her work is supported.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2023.2202914