Can an Arts Course Help Mitigate Medical Student Burnout?

Introduction: Burnout in healthcare providers begins early, with about half of medical students experiencing symptoms of burnout, and as many as one-quarter experiencing depression. While organizational, systemic-level changes certainly contribute to mitigation, organizationally sponsored individual-level changes may also play a significant role. Although the nature of the burnout epidemic and its impact on trainee wellness is fairly well understood, and interventions have been studied, there remains a gap in the empirical research examining the impact of the arts on medical student well-being. Methods: We designed a convergent mixed methods study to evaluate whether a 9-month course for fourth-year medical students called Art as Self Care (AASC) would help trainees develop habits that supported their well-being. An online survey was used to collect data at the beginning and end of each academic year on two consecutive cohorts of students. A focus group explored students' experience with and perceptions about the course. Results: Qualitative results indicated that the AASC course provided positive distraction that is calming and allowed students to shift focus from the stresses of daily medical school life. Our quantitative results suggest that art might provide a slight protective effect in medical students: whereas 22% of the non-AASC students saw a worsening of their psychological distress across the fourth year of medical school, this was observed in only 13% of the AASC students. Discussion: Our study presents pilot and feasibility data to better inform future research and practice around the use of art to support medical student well-being. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-022-01604-y.

The prism model: advancing a theory of practice for arts and humanities in medical education.

INTRODUCTION: The arts and humanities have transformative potential for medical education. Realizing this potential requires an understanding of what arts and humanities teaching is and what it aims to do. A 2016 review of exclusively quantitative studies mapped three discursive positions (art as intrinsic to, additive to or curative for medicine) and three epistemic functions (art for mastering skills, perspective taking, and personal growth and activism). A more inclusive sample might offer new insights into the position and function of arts and humanities teaching in medical education. METHODS: Informed by this 2016 framework, we conducted discursive and conceptual analyses of 769 citations from a database created in a recent scoping review. We also analyzed the 15 stakeholder interviews from this review for recurring themes. These three analyses were iteratively compared and combined to produce a model representing the complex relationship among discursive functions and learning domains. RESULTS: The literature largely positioned arts and humanities as additive to medicine and focused on the functions of mastering skills and perspective taking. Stakeholders emphasized the intrinsic value of arts and humanities and advocated their utility for social critique and change. We offer a refined theory of practice-the Prism Model of four functions (mastering skills, perspective taking, personal insight and social advocacy)-to support more strategic use of arts and humanities in medical education across all learning domains. DISCUSSION: The Prism Model encourages greater pedagogical flexibility and critical reflection in arts and humanities teaching, offering a foundation for achieving its transformative potential.

How Are the Arts and Humanities Used in Medical Education? Results of a Scoping Review.

PURPOSE: Although focused reviews have characterized subsets of the literature on the arts and humanities in medical education, a large-scale overview of the field is needed to inform efforts to strengthen these approaches in medicine. METHOD: The authors conducted a scoping review in 2019 to identify how the arts and humanities are used to educate physicians and interprofessional learners across the medical education continuum in Canada and the United States. A search strategy involving 7 databases identified 21,985 citations. Five reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts. Full-text screening followed (n = 4,649). Of these, 769 records met the inclusion criteria. The authors performed descriptive and statistical analyses and conducted semistructured interviews with 15 stakeholders. RESULTS: The literature is dominated by conceptual works (n = 294) that critically engaged with arts and humanities approaches or generally called for their use in medical education, followed by program descriptions (n = 255). The literary arts (n = 197) were most common. Less than a third of records explicitly engaged theory as a strong component (n = 230). Of descriptive and empirical records (n = 424), more than half concerned undergraduate medical education (n = 245). There were gaps in the literature on interprofessional education, program evaluation, and learner assessment. Programming was most often taught by medical faculty who published their initiatives (n = 236). Absent were voices of contributing artists, docents, and other arts and humanities practitioners from outside medicine. Stakeholders confirmed that these findings resonated with their experiences. CONCLUSIONS: This literature is characterized by brief, episodic installments, privileging a biomedical orientation and largely lacking a theoretical frame to weave the installments into a larger story that accumulates over time and across subfields. These findings should inform efforts to promote, integrate, and study uses of the arts and humanities in medical education.