Art, a tool for future doctors: 38 medical students at MUN take a course on palliative care

Art as a tool for the training of future physicians. This is the mainstay of Decision making at the end of life, a medical school elective taught in the Museo Universidad de Navarra. For a week, 38 students from 1st to 6th grade attended the sessions in the exhibition rooms, where, through visual thinking and object-based learning methodologies, they approached palliative care through art. The classes, taught in English and Spanish, were led by Fernado Echarri, head of the educational area of the MUN, Peca Macher, PhD student, and by doctors and professors Rocío Rojí, from the University of Navarra, and José Pereira, from McMaster University in Canada.

"This course is special: it tries to delve into fundamental aspects of the art of being a doctor. Leaving the Faculty of Medicine and being in this environment is already important because they leave their usual way of learning," says Rojí. In this sense, he emphasizes that "putting them in front of a work of art and helping them to feel and reflect positions them to face the content of the subject in a more open and more personal way. Sharing this experience among them, discovering the diversity in art and the different points of view leads them to understand that each patient is also unique and that there are different ways of approaching them.

Pereira also explains that "art sensitizes students to the diversity of thoughts, values, hopes, fears and personal stories that patients bring with them. It makes them appreciate the individuality of each one, who has their own stories, illnesses and healing processes. Thus, it emphasizes the importance of listening to them and exploring their personal journeys and not making assumptions. This awakens in them a common humanity with the patients they will care for."

The MUSEUM, TEACHING STAGE

The docent appreciates that the museum provides "a learning environment that enriches reflection''. "It creates a safe place where both students and teachers can ask questions and share thoughts. It also fosters humility and a sense that we can learn from everyone. It takes students out of what some may perceive as the 'strongholds' of health care institutions and into areas shared by society. It therefore connects medical students to their community and society at large."

In the classes, students contemplate different works belonging to the Museum's Collection and exhibitions and then ask open-ended questions about what they have looked at, which the students have to answer. This is one of the proposals offered by the Museum as a teaching tool, a space with great flexibility to adapt to the needs of different faculties and centers. This is Rojí's assessment: "The Museum is a very powerful tool, from the environment and the building to what it contains. The Collection and the temporary exhibitions make it an inexhaustible source of inspiration for students and professors. The spaces are very appropriate and the students feel very comfortable. The educational area collaborates a lot and gives us a plus that we are not able to transmit".