Unique UNMC art project featured in British medical journal

A unique art project involving patients and caregivers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center was the featured cover story for the current issue of a British medical journal.

 

"Portraits of care, medical research through portraiture" was the lead article in the British Medical Journal: Medical Humanities and is available free online. Virginia Aita, Ph.D., associate professor, Center for Humanities, Ethics, and Society in UNMC’s College of Public Health, was the principal investigator.

 

For the Patient and Caregiver Portraiture Study (PCPS), Scottish artist Mark Gilbert was UNMC’s artist-in-residence. He drew or painted 100 portraits of 26 patients and 20 caregivers between 2006 and 2008 to demonstrate the powerful relationship that exists between them. One of Gilbert’s paintings is featured on the cover of the journal.

 

A multi-disciplinary team then analyzed the portraits and subject data. The patients ranged from healthy to ill and from birth to the end of life. Caregiver subjects included both family and professional caregivers.

 

“The portraits allowed us to explore the dynamics of care and caregiving from multiple perspectives including that of various types of caregivers including nurses, doctors, a public health official, a custodian, family members and the patient themselves,” Dr. Aita said.

 

“The images captured through the portraits allowed health care providers to see patients as whole people who are not fragmented by diagnosis. The paintings also revealed the level of commitment of caregivers. You can see it in their eyes,” Dr. Aita said.

 

Another investigator on this study was William Lydiatt, M.D., professor, otolaryngology – head and neck surgery.

 

“We found that there is a strong reciprocal relationship between caregivers and patients, and we found that roles can frequently interchange. The fluidity between caregiving and receiving was one of the most striking findings. We also heard about the stress of caregiving from both the lay and professional staff,” Dr. Lydiatt said.

 

The study is important for three reasons:

·         The portraits, as a body of work, will remain intact and permanently in the possession of UNMC. The collection  may be analyzed by future viewers during an upcoming tour that is being planned. The patients and caregivers participated so that others would learn about care and caregiving in the context of health and illness.

·         The study has ongoing implications as both a research and teaching model. As a research model it can be applied to examine other aspects of health, illness and related questions. The body of work offers valuable applications for teaching the affective dimensions of caring.

·         Investigators suggest that the findings of this study provide provisional evidence of the social construction and meaning of care and caregiving.

 

“Perhaps health care policy discussions could be enriched if the arts were used to show health care professionals and the public how the delivery of care affects patients and caregivers,” Dr. Aita said.

 

While Gilbert was in-residence at UNMC, his portraits were exhibited at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts for three months. He also taught observation skills to medical students in a special class.