COVID-19
Medical Education
Wellness and Well-being
Trainee Track
Sarah Justvig, MD (she/her/hers)
Clinical Fellow, General Academic Pediatrics; Staff Physician; Instructor in Pediatrics
Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Robyn Blair, MD (she/her/hers)
Program Director
Stony Brook Medicine
Stony Brook, New York, United States
Workshop
Description: Art of observation interventions have been shown to decrease burnout and improve observational and diagnostic skills in over 70 U.S. medical schools incorporating such experiences. What about residents, particularly in pediatrics, a field reliant on the power of observation as our patients often cannot speak for themselves?
We created a retreat for pediatric residents on the art of observation. This session will introduce participants to intervention rationale, content, and assessment strategies. We will also explore sustainability, offering ways to integrate art into daily life and invite the seeking out of similar opportunities. Finally, we will incorporate art from previous pandemics to process COVID-19-associated emotions.
Loss of empathy in medical training is a common area of debate. The arts represent a unique and effective way to teach many skills we hope our residents will embody. Two validated systems of delivering this content are Visual Thinking Strategies and Artful Thinking, which teach that there is more than what first meets the eye, in art and in medicine.
Our extremely interactive session will involve group discussions, didactics, small group exercises, polling, word clouds, shared slide decks, and validated survey tools. Participants will leave with a renewed vigor for art and its deep connection to medicine and with a toolkit they can directly adapt to launching an arts retreat for their own trainees.
Artwork will comprise pieces we chose from our visits to Stony Brook University’s art galleries as well as from online galleries and our own experiences, including art from past pandemics.