Flourishing symposium 2022

An online symposium to meet and share ideas across disciplines and hierarchies

Menti - What does flourishing mean to you, what are the barriers

Copy of What does flourishing mean to you_ what are the barriers to flourishing_.pdf

Flourishing symposium PDF.pdf

For more on flourishing

Voices from the frontline - Patient voice

Natasha Duggan

Uncertainty again, no forward planning, it’s just here and now. I’ve noticed how time goes slower. My doing art helps create another space, where I feel safe, flow and experience joyful happenings.

Last year, whilst in hospital for vascular surgery, I asked a friend and life drawing artist Louise Gorst if she would draw me. She had drawn me many times in the past and I wanted to capture the rawness I felt in those moments soon after being in surgery. Within those first weeks back home in bed recovering, I posed over zoom in short bursts. As I had imagined, her charcoal drawings were fantastic, capturing the external bruises and my vulnerability. I remember at the time feeling the conflict of being wrung out and a bit manic from anaesthetic and meds. It was my intention to work from Louise’s drawings at a later date and recently I made some mono-prints. I went on to use gold foil to emboss my scars, inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, mending broken objects with gold, which is symbolic of embracing your flaws and imperfections. It’s a way for me to celebrate that I’m heading towards 50 and mark the vascular surgical journey that’s kept me going, the body transformation and hidden traumas.

Voices from the frontline - Student voice

by Harriet Coleman

This image here was the first dip of my toe into creative enquiry. I created the piece alongside my Student Selected Component, exploring how we can flourish at a medical school. For me, I just found the calmness of painting, after a long day of writing, very therapeutic. Each day I worked on the project I painted a different flower. I tied the image together by adding the words which emerged most commonly and resonated most strongly from my work. I love that both this image and an 8000 word essay are ways to explore such an important topic. They tell the same story but in such different ways.

Voices from the frontline - GP voice

Take Care by Dr Shona Urquhart

"Take care of yourself, doctor"

Words spoken in a moment of

Doorhandle hesitation

The door closes behind you

Your comment suspended in the silence

A platitude perhaps or

Kind words, well meant

"But, I take care of you"

My inner voice protests

It's my job and I strive to

Do it well and give my all

For you

You have unburdened yourself

In this safe place

Showed vulnerability

Whilst I hide mine

How can I go on

Caring and caring and caring?

Sometimes, my narrow shoulders,

Stiff from bearing burdens, sag

And I flounder under the

Weight of failure

Self-critical, with nothing left

To give

But, today, I pause

Receive your gift of self-compassion

Allow myself to

Be human

"Thank you"

I say to the empty room

"I will"

Willen - #FlourishinginMedicine Symposium - slides to share.pdf

Map of our conversations by Camille Aubry

Some Quotes

Within harmful cultures, self-care becomes a form of activism
Rebecca Solnit; Hope in the Dark, talks about the importance of hope as a form of energy and intention that affects change. She says that change comes from the edges, not the centre. From people not necessarily from Govt.
Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a fine act of insurrection.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark
I think that bringing the arts into a a culture with a very medical model is also activism...I remember starting a poetry board in a very medical model based oncology department to start challenging that culture in a gentle way...it was interesting to see how it started to change the conversations we had.
So crucial (looking at SDH, class, race and privilege) especially as we have lots of initiatives like widening participation to medicine but without necessarily understanding what it means for those students (who end up as colleagues) often being othered and not feeling like they belong.
For anyone feeling stressed, exhausted or overwhelmed, the worst thing can be to give them a list of wellbeing advice. It will just feel like another list of oughts and shoulds and has the potential to create more stress