RAB 2017-2018

Themes:

a) The doctor - patient relationship

b) Treating disease: Engaging with the lived experience of illness

Broken Time - William Hirst

  • Through this work, I would like to show that time is altered forever when a patient is diagnosed with a serious illness. Diagnosis with a chronic or terminal illness disrupts a patient’s life plan and changes how they view time. Chronic illness diagnosis is often associated with uncertainty in terms of prognosis and amount of time left in which a patient can be active. Patients lose control of how they want to spend their time, having to attend appointments at times that are convenient for the doctor and the health system but not for the patient. One example of this is cancer treatment which provides certainty in terms of a timeline, but patients on such a treatment plan must make many sacrifices to attend appointments and treatment. In a system where the patient is supposed to be central to everything we do, a patient’s time is no longer their own.

    Patients losing control over their time is particularly true of hospitals. Being a patient in hospital leads to a loss of a sense of time and identity. Patients can no longer choose when to eat and often do not have any control over when they are seen by a consultant. This can also be frustrating for family members who feel left out of the decision-making process. In terms of identity, patients are identified by what is wrong with them rather than how they choose to spend their time or what clothing they wear. There is however another way, the national pyjama paralysis campaign is aiming to reduce the reinforcing effect wearing pyjamas has on feeling unwell (NHS England, 2018). By helping patients to wear their own clothes in hospital they will be able to identify as something other than their disease.

    I have represented this patient experience as a mixed media piece made from a broken clock. I have created a piece of art from a broken clock face to symbolise how a patient’s experience of illness is closely entwined with time. This piece also represents how a patient’s life is disrupted when they receive a chronic diagnosis. The hole in the canvas signifies how a serious diagnosis tears a hole in their life plan. This hole also represents a loss of time left, as well as loss of having control over how patients can choose to spend their time. Another interpretation of this fissure is as the rift between a patient and their family, as relationships change due to the burden of illness. The clock face signifies the face of the patient who loses their identity and embodies their illness after diagnosis. The hands of the clock are held together to indicate a doctor’s attempt to reach out to a patient and offer them comfort and closeness. The cogs in the clock which have moved away from the middle, signify the machinery of life, which is no longer central to a patient who is experiencing illness. The numbers represent the hours of a patient’s life, which are no longer the patient’s own and are counting down until their last hour.

    References:

    NHS England (2018) 70 days to end pyjama paralysis, 2018. Available online: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2018/03/70-days-to-end-pyjama-paralysis/ [Accessed Feb 2018]

Mr X - Reya Srivastava

  • The importance of patient-centred care cannot be overstated. Treating each patient as an individual with a specific set of values and beliefs leads to greater trust, patient satisfaction, and better health outcomes. My painting depicts what happens when this is not recognised.

    When creating my art piece, my aim was to portray the way many patients feel when they are subjected to a paternalistic approach. The blurred face in this portrait takes away the patient’s individual identity and replaces it with a generic form. The viewer is forced to see him the way a doctor might: simply as ‘young male.’ The use of a monochromatic palate again reinforces the lack of individuality.

    Without the face serving as the focus of the piece, I wanted to draw attention to the patient’s hands. Clasped hands held over the abdomen are often associated with vulnerability, giving the viewer some insight into how he might be feeling. Medical consultations can be intimidating for some patients and detecting non-verbal clues can help doctors elicit and address the patient’s unresolved concerns.