Creative enquiry and reflective general practice

Abstract

> ‘Practice is a form of art and practitioners are a particular variety of artist.’ 1 As a young GP in 2006 and new to the blood, sweat, and tears of practice, I found myself at a narrative medicine conference exploring a difficult consultation. Through creative writing and dialogue about ‘the girl in black’, who entered and left my room fruitlessly, it became evident that I was catching her sense of helplessness and responding by offering solutions that made me feel better. This revelation emerged in a moment but transformed my practice forever. Creative enquiry has been described in the research world as: ‘... the making of artistic expressions … as a primary way of understanding and examining experience.’ 2 This may involve poetry, photography, painting, or any art form coupled with reflective writing. Creative enquiry allows for imaginative engagement with one’s own experience as well as trying out someone else’s shoes. But why invite creative reflective thinking on practice when creative exploration can feel uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and exposing? A medical student on a creative enquiry module wrote: ‘The arts and the “human side” of medicine are scoffed at by many medical students.’ 3 In this article we draw on our experience within under- and postgraduate education3,4 to show that the arts can play a significant role in enlarging human understanding through, for example, inviting participants to reframe experiences, engage with multiple perspectives, embrace other languages of expression, and …