Abstract
In this article, we comment upon and provide an arts-informed example of an emotive-focused reflection of a health care practitioner. Specifically, we use poetry and photographic imagery as tools to un-earth practitioners’ emotions within agonizing and traumatic clinical encounters. In order to recognize one’s own humanness and authentically engage in the art of medicine, we immerse ourselves in the first author’s poetic and photographic self-reflection. The poem and image are intended to inspire interpretation and meaning based on the reader’s own professional and/or personal context. The last line of the poem is “I take off the gloves. My hands are marked.”
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Gary C. Barjarow for the photography. He has worked closely with the first author to develop the image. The authors wish to acknowledge the funding sources related to this project: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Dissemination Events Grant; Ryerson University, Faculty of Community Services Seed Grant; and Sigma Theta Tau International Lambda Pi-At-Large Chapter Seed Grant
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Lapum, J., Yau, T., Church, K. et al. Un-Earthing Emotions through Art: Facilitating Reflective Practice with Poetry and Photographic Imagery. J Med Humanit 36, 171–176 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-013-9258-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-013-9258-0