Student nurses in dialogues with hypothetical patients regarding paintings

Abstract

As early as the work by Lichtwark (1902) arts were used as a pedagogical tool. His aim was to teach children to `see' through careful observations of works of art. The pedagogy employed in health care education must continually be questioned and expanded. Student nurses must be prepared for nursing practice that continually changes, meaning that alternative concepts in nurse education must be considered. Thus, visual art dialogues in student nurses' education could be a valuable teaching/learning complement to theoretical knowledge. The aim of this study is to investigate the ways in which student nurses intended to conduct a dialogue with a patient using a painting as a starting point. The study was conducted in the students' second year at a university college of health sciences in Sweden. In all, 50 students (47 female and three male) participated. The students had previously received a short introduction to art perception of some of the museums' paintings by the curator. This included observation and reflection on specific works of art. When they had studied several works of art at the museum they were asked to select one work of art from a series of 12 paintings that they thought might be used as a conversation tool with patients. The selection of these paintings was performed on basis of methods in psychological and art scientific research into aesthetic reactions to and perception of art tendencies. Analysis of the students' comments on how the dialogue with the patient would develop revealed comments of five qualitatively different types: activating memories, presenting knowledge, existential aspects/meaning of life, emotional reactions and concrete aspects.