Nurturing Context: TRACE, the Arts, Medical Practice, and Health Literacy

This chapter builds upon prior research on the interconnectedness of context to content as it relates to health and health literacy. The authors focus on the use of the arts as a novel way to engage with and to promote health and health communication. Most published efforts exploring the humanities and health emphasize how healthcare practitioners can enhance their clinical skills, promote wellness, and prevent burnout through engagement with the arts. The current chapter adds how the arts inform us about health, and more broadly, the lessons to be learned from appreciating multidimensional contexts. The authors underscore the role of the arts to address context and introduce how the arts impact health literacy. The authors provide an overview of TRACE, a unique pedagogical program that explores both the content and context communicated via the arts, with a focus on lessons for medicine and health, including health literacy. The chapter suggests enhanced provider apperception via arts exposure has implications to improve clinical practice and health literacy.