Creative enquiry in medical education
Elle Tallgren Year 2 Medical Student, 2021
I am choosing to speak upon this topic from my heart and without a script just to highlight the true importance that creative enquiry now plays in my life. First a bit about me, I am now a second-year medical student at Barts and the London, and I got introduced to this area of medicine just 6 months ago while doing an SSC with Louise. Now I am here talking about how it transformed my way of looking at myself, my future self, my personal and professional life, and the way I view creativity.
One concept we explored quite a lot is the creation of a safe space in order to practice creative enquiry. The piece on the next slide is an example of work that emerged from that shared safe space. After finding inspiration around the topic of flourishing, we submerged ourselves into a quiet space for 10 minutes or so, and sketched. What emerged was a piece about the importance of shared safe space. It was the feeling of creating with 10 other individuals at the same time, knowing that my creativity will not be rejected but also that my boundaries are respected. We were taught about the concept of third space, which is what doctors are encouraged to create between them and the patient to ensure a feeling of safety and comfort. It is in this space that the patient can feel it is possible to be human in front of the doctor who -needless to say- is also human, although this is often portrayed otherwise. In the end we are all individuals on this planet- hence the title of my piece.
I was introduced to the concept of flourishing for the first time during the SSC and it provided meaningful answers to the dislike I have had for the linking of resilience to everything in medical education. The conversation around this topic showed me that there is a better way to go forwards in my life and I don't have to bounce back from every hard experience like I had permanent springs under my shoes- they are not permanent and they get rusty easily. The journey towards flourishing allows me to take painful experiences with me, explore them through creative enquiry, and accept them as part of me rather than as flaws I would like to exclude from my life. This can help us accept our humanity and walk into the direction of humanising medicine and medical education.
I have been doing photography for about 10 years now and it has always been a powerful tool to explore how my mind perceives the world around me and what I think of it. However, I had never put these inner thoughts on paper let alone reflected on them to others. The conversation around creative enquiry makes space for that and I am able to put into words where the art piece stems from. I feel like this process is helping me take steps towards a more empathetic and understanding doctor who sees the patient as an individual. To me, this is the clashing of art and medicine I have been looking for ever since I found these two passions of mine. Often it is difficult to put into words the hard or even traumatizing events of life, art in its every form can act as a way of communication. Moving forwards from the SSC, I have introduced the topic to many of my close friends and it has allowed to process my experience of burnout and feelings of "failure". Overall, creative enquiry to me is a tool to understand flourishing and learn to appreciate my lived experience.
