What’s in a wave

Abstract

The following creative enquiry is intended as a submission to contribute to the three-minute slot for the Society of Academic Primary Care South East Virtual Conference 2021. It was sparked by a picture and article shared within our KUMEC team (Mitchell, 2020), around the same time when I started my new role as Lecturer in Medical Education at Kings College, London. It led me to reflect on the meaning of a 'wave', and how this picture and article transformed my understanding. As a former clinical allied health professional, I have a strong professional interest in reflective practice, and as a musician, a more personal interest in song-writing and meaning. As an educator, I am interested in the power of words and pictures to elicit and elucidate diverse attitudes and values from learners. Therefore, the appeal for creative enquiry abstracts at Madingley 2021 seemed to bring me straight to this idea.

The enquiry takes a draft form in thirteen rhythmical stanzas. Each stanza intends to elicit meaning and reflective inquiry within the reader/listener. The first six are around the themes of loss and fear and how we have sought to deal with it in throughout 2020. The last three stanzas are an acknowledgement of the term 'novel' and what else is new and needed during the times of COVID; namely a new compassionate workforce in healthcare.

Specifically, stanza 7 relates to the advent of connectivism, not only as a 'novel' paradigm for communication, but now a necessity. Stanza 8 is related to the enforcing and lifting of restrictions and lockdown. Stanza 9 through 10 aim to imbue the themes of the Madingley Conference 2021, and intend to link the science behind a body, with emotions that manifest discretely beyond what can be seen by science. The intent is that the reader recognises those feelings, the abstract, the metaphor, and this evokes compassion for both the body and mind. Being able to manage the workings of the body concurrent to the feelings of the heart is, I believe, key to compassionate practice, moving the focus from the dualist tendencies of biomedical interventions.

As a solo project, this creative enquiry only entertains the perspectives of one observer: me. However, it is hoped that it might entertain creative reflectivity in others and sit well in the context of a fuller scientific schedule.

Reference:

Mitchell, G. (2020). Analysis: Lessons to learn for a second wave of Covid-19. Nursing Times. Retrieved 7 Dec, 2020 from https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/coronavirus/analysis-lessons-to-learn-for-a-second-wave-of-covid-19-05-06-2020/

Martin Sands, Lecturer in Medical Education, KUMEC team, Kings College London, martin.sands@kcl.ac.uk