Exploring the relationship between geriatric patients and their carers through portraiture: giving, receiving, observing & witnessing care (GROWing Care)

The process of creating a portrait relies on a series of intimate interactions. Portraits, even those that depict a single individual, are a visual testament to a relationship. Portrait sitters are required to engage with artists in the creation of their personal visual narrative. As viewers of a portrait, we are invited to actively participate in other’s stories, to observe, to question, even stare. This process is integral to the portraits evolving meaning. Giving, receiving, observing & witnessing care (GROWing Care), the case study presented in this manuscript, draws on these multiple exchanges to explore the experience of dementia and portraiture among older adults and their partners in care as they work with artist/researcher Mark Gilbert, and geriatrician, Kenneth Rockwood

What Lawrence’s Story Tells Health Researchers About Arts-Based Interactions

In arts-based-research, knowledge and meaning emerge from people’s experiences of being in dynamic, ambiguous, intentional, and ethical relationships with each other and the arts. This case study draws on Launer’s “7 C’s” (context, conversations, curiosity, complexity, challenge, caution, and care) to understand the aesthetics (shape and form) and ethics of relationships between an artist-researcher and patient-sitter in portraiture-based medical research. This case supports the 7 C’s being embodied in the art-making process, as the approach can usefully frame ethical challenges and rewards of portraiture-based health research for artist-researcher and patient-participant

Health Care Professionals’ Journeys of Caring Through Portraiture

Metropolitan Community College, a comprehensive multicampus academic institution in Omaha, Nebraska, installed portraits by the third author (MG) in the Health Careers Building and integrated them into an associate degree nursing curriculum. One goal was to expose nursing students to patients’ stories in ways that encourage them to look beyond pain rating scales and protocols to the many dimensions of patients as human beings. Using portraiture in this way could be applied to any health professions curriculum, as the intersections of humanities and health care prompted students and clinicians to look beyond science and into the emotional journeys of caring

Anthony and the Role of Silence in Portraiture in Clinical Settings

This article describes one collaborative arts-based research project. Portrait artist Mark Gilbert and coinvestigators consider lessons for art and healing from one patient, Anthony, whose experience of head and neck cancer diagnosis, surgery, and recovery suggests how silence is ethically, artistically, and clinically significant

Promoting Spiritual Wellness on a College Campus through Community Based Participatory Research

This case study describes an initiative to promote spiritual wellness on a public state college campus and demonstrates evidence of the effectiveness of taking a community-based approach. We employed the community readiness model to develop an initiative to promote spiritual wellness in a Midwestern state university. We recruited informants through purposeful sampling and conducted interviews, both pre- and post-initiative launch. Baseline data was used to inform initiative efforts. The community’s level of readiness to promote spiritual wellness increased from stage three, vague awareness, at baseline to stage six, initiation, at follow up. Although these findings are specific to our community, this communitybased participatipatory research approach may be an effective way of developing appropriate strategies to promoting spiritual practices throughout higher education

Urban American Indian Community Health Beliefs Associated with Addressing Cancer in the Northern Plains Region

American Indians residing in the Northern Plains region of the Indian Health Service experience some of the most severe cancer-related health disparities. We investigated ways in which the community climate among an American Indian population in an urban community in the Northern Plains region influences community readiness to address cancer. A Community Readiness Assessment, following the Community Readiness Model, conducted semi-structured interviews with eight educators, eight students, and eight community leaders from the American Indian community in Omaha’s urban American Indian population and established the Northern Plains region community at a low level of readiness to address cancer. This study reports on a subsequent qualitative study that analyzed all 24 interview transcriptions for emergent themes to help understand the prevailing attitude of the community toward cancer. A synthesis of six emergent themes revealed that the community’s perceptions of high levels of severity and barriers, paired with perceptions of low levels of susceptibility and benefits, lead to low levels of self-efficacy, all of which are reflected in minimal cues to action and little effort to address cancer. These findings, interpreted through the lens of the Health Belief Model, can inform the development of more community-based, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate approaches to address the multilevel determinants of health behaviors in relation to cancer among American Indians in the Northern Plains region