How can literature and art enhance our understanding of patient experiences in healthcare?

We enter this world through the healthcare system, and for many of us, it’s also where we leave it. Health, from the old English hǣlth, means to be whole. Health is synonymous with life, and healthcare, to the narrative of our lives. 

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Art and literature are undeniably crucial to healthcare, hence the plethora of research on the benefits of art therapy, whether it be for lowering anxiety and perceived pain (1), in music groups for treating postpartum depression (2) or through hospital’s artist-in-residence programs. Nurses, families and the society at large are all part of the medical system. Nevertheless, this piece will focus specifically on two crucial healthcare members that need to better understand patient experiences: the doctors and the patients themselves.

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[1] Art appreciated by both patients and doctors connects them.

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The scientific and medical language is intimidating. For patients, the word “computed tomography scan” is frightening, the word “cholecystectomy” is confusing, and the word “cancer” overwhelming. For doctors, vague descriptions of “pain” and “discomfort” and confounding symptoms of “sore throats” and “headaches” are difficult for doctors to decipher. It’s often hard to create a dialogue between doctors and patients, and it leads healthcare to be quite an alienating system.

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A shared appreciation for art is a way to connect doctor and patient quickly, sincerely and memorably. It’s art through which people most quickly find commonality and form a genuine rapport: the discovery of a love for Wong Kar Wai’s framed scenery over a consultation, or the memory of a childhood cartoon to distract a paediatric patient. We can understand what connects us together by remembering a copy of a Degas on the wall or a landscape painting that made a clinic visit slightly more calming. Patients can feel heard and understood, while doctors can ease conversation.

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If we zoom out, beyond our planet, beyond the Milky Way, the difference between Jay Gatsby and Atticus Finch is insignificant. And if we zoom in, down to the elements and subatomic particles, it’s the same A, C, T, G and U nucleotide bases, the same electrons and protons and neutrons, the limited amount of resources that cycle through the ecosystem that we share, and that makes you and I no different. When art is appreciated, it becomes a common link that unites patients and doctors. Like the subtle Van der Waals forces that keep geckos on the wall, art is the subtle force that facilitates communication. This shared appreciation for art connects patients and doctors, and allows them to better understand each other's perspectives.

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[2] Art fosters empathy in doctors and patients by allowing them to use their imaginations to understand each other’s perspectives.

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Despite the commonalities we often share, the experiences we have in healthcare and in life are singular to us. Although we are all made of the same amino acids, the slight variations in the folds of the chain, in the number of protons in the nucleus, make the difference between weapon and water. When we bundle patients into wide labels and demographics with our well-intentioned hope of simplifying healthcare, we fail to acknowledge the differences in each individual’s life, beliefs, and ability to cope. 

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Art cultivates our ability to understand the unique quality of each story and character. It gives you the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life, geographic locations, generations and perspectives. Doctors can better comprehend the patients they might meet. Patients can have more understanding for their overworked physicians.

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Art engages our imagination and forces us to see from eyes other than our own. Reading Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion compels you to understand how a stutter or clubbed feet can be isolating, impact self-confidence, and make daily life a pain. Similarly, reading the graphic novel Le Photographe, you see the deserted plains of Afghanistan through which Doctors Without Borders travel to build hospitals, and you start to imagine what your life could have been.

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Medicine, like art, is human. Medical writing, rather than being clinical, can mirror the lyricism of art. Because breaking difficult news to a family, announcing a diagnosis or explaining long treatment options becomes easier when we are reminded of our human natures. By appreciating the individuality of each doctor and patient, we start to comprehend that their perception of the world is not necessarily the same as ours. This gap needs to be bridged with empathy. While art's ability to foster empathy is crucial, it also has the power to transcend the barriers of illness itself.

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[3] Art defies illness and acts as a common language when disability alienates patients from doctors.

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White withering walls separate patient from doctor, doctor from family, family from the rest of the world. Illnesses can be debilitating. Hospitals can be distant and glacial. The experience can be dejecting, exhausting and lonely. Disease creates barriers and obstacles around patients and their experiences: the inability to see, hear, move. Yet, art is one of the rare things that pays little attention to the obstacles we set. A blind person is moved by the memory of colour, Beethoven composes deaf and Matisse creates his cuttings and paintings bedridden. 

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Art can bridge the gap that illness creates. A blind patient can imagine a starry night when hearing Chopin’s Nocturnes more clearly than someone with sight. Don Quixote’s adventures are as exciting from a seat on the subway as in a post-op hospital bed. The optimism that radiates from Van Gogh’s Sunflowers or the intricacies of the statue of the Aphrodite of Milo are the art through which we can understand the universal narrative that underscores all our lives. Art can not only alleviate the pains of illness, but allow patients to work around disability, to foster a sense of safety, to boost their immunities (3).

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Ultimately, the ways in which art and literature can enhance our understanding of patient experiences points to a deeper truth - that both healthcare and the creative arts are fundamentally human endeavours. Art is an existential matter, the difference between life and death, just as healthcare is. We thus see what unites art and healthcare: their existential nature.

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References

1. Jingxuan H, Jinhuan Z,  Liyu H, Haibo Y, Jinping X. Art Therapy: A Complementary Treatment for Mental Disorders. National Library of Medicine [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2024 Aug 2]; Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8397377/

2. Rosie P, Sarah Y, Daisy F. How group singing facilitates recovery from the symptoms of postnatal depression: a comparative qualitative study. BMC Psychology. [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2024 Aug 2]; Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6098577/

3. Heather S, Jeremy N. The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature. American Public Health Association [Internet]. 2010 [cited 2024 Aug 2]; Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804629/