OOOH!! is woven into the fabric of medical education at Bristol. For many years medical undergraduates had a mandatory assignment known by students as “compulsory creativity”. Students were required to create a work of art, in any conceivable medium, that reflected on medical themes. Some did the least they could to pass but a surprising number surprised themselves and us with works of poignancy and calibre.

We have reflected on our experience with OOOH!! in two journal articles:

‘Compulsory creativity’: rationales, recipes, and results in the placement of mandatory creative endeavour in a medical undergraduate curriculum

Out of Our Heads! Four perspectives on the curation of an on-line exhibition of medically themed artwork by UK medical undergraduates

We haven’t got complete records for all artworks, in particular the year of submission for the earliest contributions. The most common course to contribute was “Whole Person Care” which ran from 2002 to 2017. Students subsequently submitted creative pieces in response to their “GP Attachments”. More recent courses include “Foundations of Medicine” and “Y2 Effective Consulting”.

The intercalated B.A. in Medical Humanities, student electives focusing on Poetry, Creative Arts for Health and Anatomical Drawing, plus the Disability Disadvantage and Diversity theme also embed creative practices.

Use the OOOH!! filter system below to locate all the works dealing with a particular course. The dropdown list “Courses” will reveal all. You can then narrow your search by choosing additional dropdown categories such as Art Forms and Specialties.