Art in Medicine
Training Medical Students
in the Use of Creative Expression to Improve Elder Care
Syllabus
Course Meeting Times
Seminars: 1 session/ month, 1 hour/ session, (First session 2 hours, last session field trip plus culminating event.)
In a series of 1 workshop, 4 webinars, 1 field trip and a culminating event during the fall semester, first year medical students will be educated and trained in how participatory arts such as poetry, dance, music, storytelling and visual arts can enhance the quality of life of elders and people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.
The students will then use these skills to help lead an on-site participatory arts workshop with elders and/or people living with memory loss. The class will end in a culminating event where students recite a poem and present an original story. The field trip and culminating event will take place on the same day.
An important component of the program will be to ascertain how the attitudes of the medical students are affected by observing and participating in creative arts with elders, including people living with Alzheimer’s and related dementia.
Prerequisites
Permission of the instructors.
Course Credit
Service Learning Credit TBA
Participation
Your participation takes several forms:
· Completing the monthly readings and viewing or listening to the media samples.
· Becoming familiar with the “best practices” for each session by reading the text and viewing videos on the various websites listed.
· Memorizing a poem each month and reciting the one of the poems during the field trip and at the culminating event.
· Actively participating in all class sessions, and facilitating discussion and activities during the sessions.
· Create and perform a personal story or an interview in the Story Core method at the culminating event. Help to organize the culminating event.
· Take part in an attitudinal study on dementia.
Field Trip, Final Project and Culminating Event
Field Trip
Students will take part in an on-site participatory arts workshop with elders and/or people living with memory loss. (Location TBA)
Final Project
For the final project, your assignment is to create and present a story. In addition, you will recite one of the poems you have memorized during the semester.
Culminating Event
The final project will take place at a culminating event with a working title of “Stethoscope: A Storytelling, Spoken Word Soiree. The event will be organized and promoted by the students to friends, facility and the general public.