Update: This post was kindly re-posted here on the ISCHP site on 5 August 2024.
Those of you who had followed the Critical Physio blog before ParaDoxa started will know that I teach a postgrad course for experienced health professionals.
The course is designed to get them to think deeply and critically about themselves as professionals, their profession, and the myriad others they work with.
Crucially, it’s designed to get them to think in unfamiliar ways about work that has, for some, become stale through familiarity.
As part of the assessment, they produce six artefacts that can be in any medium, any style or form, but they are especially encouraged to express themselves without words.
Periodically I’d post up some images from the last course to showcase some of the creative things they have produced as inspiration for the times when we all feel a little blocked.
Dumbbell
The idea here was to show how progressing through the nursing ranks makes you stronger, but everyday you have more weight to lift.(The weights were made from a length of dowel and some electrical tape).
Piupiu
Other pieces, like this piupiu (a Māori skirt-like garment normally made from woven flax), show an extraordinary level of skill and detail. Again, though, the key message is what matters. And in this piece, the student used swatches of the different threads to show the layers of prejudice woven into New Zealand (healthcare) culture.
Ducks
This piece is meant to be assembled. One of the ducks has an 'X' marked on the bottom. This is you as a young clinician. The other ducks represent your clients in your caseload, your expectations, and the needs of the service. The packaged water represents staffing, your health, and your ability to cope. All the ducks want to float. Sometimes your duck is at the top, sometimes at the bottom. Every day events prick holes in your duck and the air gets squeezed out. Slowly the duck sinks to the bottom. More ducks keep getting added and water removed. A beautiful metaphor for the everyday pressures of work.
Foam badge
Sometimes the message is about layers and complexity, as in this foam nursing badge that simulates a pack of coloured post-it notes each describing a different layer of nursing work revealing the profession's identity beneath.
Diorama
Technology allows for all kinds of new ways for students to make their activities. This student used 3-D printing to create a diorama of a paramedic tending to an injured soldier as a representation of his work as a military medic. (Pen used to indicate scale).
Indoctrination kit
Attention to detail can make a huge difference to the activities some students submit. In this piece, the student has printed small labels for everything, and each label makes its own specific point related to the activity. The deliberate choice to use hospital equipment adds another layer of complexity to the activity, in this case about toxic workplace cultures.
Knitted flag blanket
Here, a knitted flag shows a proportional representation of the different ethnicities in Aotearoa New Zealand, incomplete and evolving in the corner. The green border represents the healthcare system, ragged at its fringes.
Bracelet
The bracelet is a statement about friendship between the clinician and the patient recovering from breast cancer. The jewels represent moments of connection. (Interestingly though, the bracelet was also presented in a box, perhaps symbolising a gift passed on to a relative after the patient's death, a coffin, or a votive offering for the person to carry into the afterlife?) One of the best things about these activities is that, unlike a simple written description, they can be open to multiple interpretations.
Doll and grass
In this piece a female paramedic doll offers one public-facing appearance but conceals a very different message beneath.
Loaf
Students will often use food as a way to express ideas like the way a professional is made up of a mixture of ingredients. Some students go further wanting to talk about decay and rot, or things that look tasty but deep-down aren't. In this piece, the student is the loaf of bread and the different forks represent everyone who takes a bite out of her.
