Surgery resident participants and the attending faculty leads for the Good Surgeon project at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis spent a recent Saturday morning at the WashU Kemper Art Museum.
The focus of this session was on the art of attention. Most visitors to an art museum will spend 10-15 seconds (or less) looking at a piece of work. What happens when we look closer and spend time exploring together what we see in a work of art?
The Good Surgeon project aims to explore humanistic and reflective dimensions of surgical practice. The program at WashU Medicine is led by Kathryn Rowland, MD, director of the Center for Humanism and Ethics in Surgical Specialties, and Matthew Rosengart, MD, MPH, who serves as director of resident research for the general surgery residency.
“During surgical training one’s attention can quickly become focused and narrowed,” said Rowland, who also serves as director of the pediatric surgery fellowship at WashU Medicine. “It is easy to lose sight of the bigger question of who am I becoming. The visit to the art museum encouraged participants to suspend time and consider what is truly worthy of our attention.”
Huge thanks to Jose Garza, the Kemper Museum Academic Programs Coordinator, and our host at the museum!
Learn more about the Good Surgeon project>>