Extending Arts-Based Interventions in Graduate Medical Education through the Positive Humanities: the Re-FRAME...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Positive Humanities
• Arts-Based Interventions

Background:

• Arts-and-humanities-based interventions are common in medical education for well-being and burnout prevention.
• Mechanisms of these interventions in graduate medical education are not fully understood.
• The positive humanities framework offers a lens to study arts-based interventions' impact on well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a visual art workshop using a positive humanities framework.
• To elucidate mechanisms through which arts-based curricula support well-being in internal medicine interns.

Main Methods:

• A 3-hour visual art workshop (re-FRAME) was conducted at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
• Fifty-six first-year internal medicine residents participated.
• Program evaluation involved a post-workshop survey assessing attitudes and analyzing open-ended data.

Main Results:

• Analysis revealed four key categories supporting well-being: emotional awareness/expression, reflection, nonjudgmental observation, and socialization.
• Participants reported becoming more emotionally aware and expressive through art.
• The workshop facilitated pausing for reflection, practicing nonjudgmental observation, and normalizing experiences.

Conclusions:

• The study substantiated positive humanities mechanisms for supporting intern well-being.
• Reflectiveness, skill acquisition, socialization, and expressiveness were identified as key supporting factors.
• Arts-based interventions, viewed through positive humanities, can effectively support medical interns' well-being.