Checkup

A creative bedside manner: A successful program brings art — and a fun distraction — to patients

Artist-in-residence Sara Huke enjoys working with patients like Ida Whiteside through Mayo's Art-at-the-Bedside program.

The first time Jacksonville University art student Sara Huke entered a patient's room at St. Luke's Hospital to share an art project, she wasn't sure what to expect. The patient sat quietly in the dark, staring out the window.

"I went in and struck up a conversation with him," says Huke, "and soon we were laughing, joking and painting together."

The only art most patients expect to see in a hospital room are the pictures hanging on the walls. But the new Art-at-the-Bedside program sponsored by the Mayo Clinic Center for Humanities in Medicine is bringing art much closer to patients and giving them a welcome respite from hospital medicine.

"The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive," says Nell Robinson, administrator for Humanities in Medicine Jacksonville. "It takes the right kind of person to be effective in this role, because it's not only about art but about talking and relating with patients."

Art-at-the-Bedside began as a six-month test project in October 2003. Two local college students, an art major and a premed major with art experience, were assigned to visit certain patient floors one afternoon a week. Together with patients and sometimes other family members, they worked on projects such as sun catchers, ornaments, watercolor postcards, needlepoint and paintings. Many patients were interested in the projects themselves, but most admitted that they enjoyed the company just as much.

"It's less about the artwork and more about building a bridge between two people," says Hope McMath, director of Education for The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. "We're not art therapists, and it's not about making great art. We're there to help give patients a better quality of life."

McMath and others from the Cummer serve on Mayo Clinic's Humanities in Medicine Community Advisory Committee and have brought the opportunity for creative expression to health-care facilities in Jacksonville through their own Art Connections in Healthcare program.

The St. Luke's pilot was so successful, the program is being expanded throughout the hospital. In addition to Mayo's own artists-in-residence, the Cummer will provide two art educators experienced in similar programs.

Chrystia Clark, an architect who recently returned to college to prepare for medical school, was the first artist-in-residence to work with patients at the hospital. She says the program extends traditional patient care, which focuses on healing the body, because it offers emotional and spiritual benefits to patients and their families. Clark says the experience has helped her as well.

"I enjoy hearing perspectives from people in all walks of life and learning from their wisdom and experiences," says Clark. "Helping ease patients' minds while painting or making crafts and helping them express themselves verbally and visually is extremely rewarding."

Info:
Art-at-the-Bedside program coordinator
(904) 953-0556