Courses
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:
Artworks
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.
OOOH!! Search & Filter
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.
Courses
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.
OOOH!! Search & Filter
Use the OOOH!! filter system below to locate all the works in OOOH!! which use a particular medium. The dropdown list “Perspectives” will reveal all. You can then narrow your search by choosing additional dropdown categories such as Art Forms and Diagnoses.
Full Moon
First visit to the surgery art sessions
Hand Sequence 1.
Illustrating a clasped hand, and all the potential implications this action has
Caterpillar to Butterfly
Thoughts on how medical education is a form of ‘metamorphosis’
Bob Marley
Interpreting Bob Marley’s unique style through a portrait
Thompson
Illustration of a friend’s cat, reminding a doctor of his place in life’s journey
2 in 1
Exploration of a duality of feelings
David
Challenging patient in residential care and student’s sense of failure in everyday interactions
New Glasses
Tough recognition of a grandparent’s emotional abuse, and perspectives around death and dying
Uncertainty
A pencil exploration of Dorothea Lange’s iconic image with a focus on the presence of conflicting emotions whilst living with ill-health
Chasing the Bismarck
A narrative inspired by a sailor-patient’s adventures: then creative writing in medicine under scrutiny
Healing Wounds
A short story of a consultation inspired by the architectural formation of ‘the bee’s cell’
Head Pain
Emotional or physical pain? – a hospital experience triggers the artist to reflect on the presentation and nature of symptoms in general
Too Young To Understand
A child unaware her mother is terminally ill and the moving description of a GP consultation orchestrated to protect her from this knowledge
Pandora’s Box
Auto-immune disorder wreaks emotional havoc for both the clinician-patient and his family
Taking
A mother’s mixed emotions around pregnancy and her unborn child and the future
Neglect
A visual interpretation of a patient’s physical and psychological state post-stroke
Daffodil
Metaphorical painting of renewal following traumatic episodes inspired by the artist’s lived experience
Tattoo
An elderly merchant seaman’s embodiment and identity seemingly affected by the surgical destruction of a prized tattoo
I am Like an Onion
Meeting an elderly lady with depression – haunted by her horrific childhood experiences in wartime Germany
Just a Reflection
A patient confronting her distorted posture- reflections on living with a degenerative disease
Tolerant Farmer
A stoic farmer reluctant to visit his G.P.
The Die Hard Smoker
An elderly smoker survives against the odds, defiant in his addiction to tobacco
Depression
A suicidal, depressed man confined at home
Nightmares
Tormented by nightmares – a family consultation highlights the crucial role of GP advice beyond the medical
Why do I feel so guilty about this?
Medical student on a ward with a dying man – feeling unable to comfort him
Contact
Dark and light – the complexities of consultations stripped bare
The Caring Doctor
Black humour around a doctor’s cynical outlook
The Snowman
Doctor-snowman made in response to wishes of a terminally-ill patient on a home-visit
The Patient
A traumatic experience of de-humamizing psychiatric care for a medical student in the 1960’s
Targets
Humorous response to government guidelines in general practice
Christmas Decorations
Narrative based on an encounter with an elderly lady in hospital ward not wanting to return home to her isolated existence
My Mother: The Stranger
The poet accompanies his mother through acute clinical depression
Sleepless
Sleep patterns following life’s journey, lyrical literary perspectives and legacy of broken sleep
Hearts Connect
‘Meeting’ the patient in an authentic way – in a memorable consultation
The Veil
The impossibility of cognitively coming to terms with news of a young baby’s imminent death
Kidney Flower
A patient living well with kidney disease is profoundly inspiring to the artist
The Eyes are the Window to The Soul
The artist suggests an important role of the doctor includes observing patients’ unspoken feelings
Bodies
A powerful poem around survival inspired by a prisoner of war in Burma who now finds himself dying from cancer as was the case for his recently and abruptly deceased wife
Two Women
The emotional fragility of fertility and socio/cultural context
Waiting Rooms
The surgery waiting room – exploring the body language of vulnerability
Whole Person Care
A challenge to holism and creativity within medical education.
The Art of General Practice
Beaming in on an array of symptoms presented by patient