Center For Narrative Practice Presents Aesthetic Attention: Art in Clinical Practice Workshop Nov 13-14, 2015

Co-Host Arts Practica Aims to Improve Expert Clinical Perception Through Arts Learning Experiences for Healthcare Providers

BOSTON (Oct 20, 2015) - Today, the Center for Narrative Practice announced it will co-host a workshop by Arts Practica on November 13-14, 2015. The goal of this two-day program, "Aesthetic Attention: Art in Clinical Practice," is to improve knowledge, skills, and self-awareness in the expert clinical perception of healthcare providers.

The Center for Narrative Practice, a new academic center in Boston, offers healthcare providers a fresh perspective on clinical perception. "Discerning perception skills are foundational to diagnostic accuracy, patient satisfaction, effectiveness in teams, and professional wellness," said Executive Director Scott Alderman. "We are thrilled to partner with Arts Practica on a new innovation applying arts education to address the biases that challenge healthcare today."

"Through a series of closely linked clinical didactics and immersive arts experiences, participants will practice key perception skills in up-close encounters with works of art, examine their clinical implications, reflect on their own perception habits, and take away specific techniques they can apply," Mr. Alderman concluded.

November 13 will take place at the CNP classrooms at 89 South Street, Boston; November 14 will take place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The faculty are Arts Practica Founder Alexa Miller, M.A. and Amy Ship, M.D., M.A., Faculty Director, Katherine Swan Ginsburg Humanism in Medicine Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School . Ship and Miller both taught in Harvard Medical School's museum-based course, "Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis," for more than a decade. This workshop represents a next step in applying the skills and tools of the art-viewing experience to patient safety issues affecting busy practitioners involved in the daily work of seeing patients.

"Observation is essential to expertise in medicine, and yet clinical training lacks a standard model for teaching and learning how to look. Interacting with visual art is exactly the kind of practice-based experience that is required to learn to look with flexibility and effectiveness. Learning to see brings many unexpected benefits: quite literally, opening eyes opens minds. Arts Practica proposes a model for learning observation in the context of art museums to improve quality in the clinic," said Arts Practica founder and workshop faculty member Alexa Miller, M.A.

The workshop is open to healthcare providers across disciplines; no prior experience with art is necessary. For more information and to register, visit www.NarrativePractice.org

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About Center for Narrative Practice
The Center for Narrative Practice provides deep critical training in how stories, work, both personally and culturally, and the ability to apply this knowledge to everyday life by using narrative practice, the creative arts, and the study of story as a bridge towards deeper connections in inter-disciplinary and inter-professional education. A registered 501(c) 3 the Center offers training and education for professionals, scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and all those interested in the applications of narrative and creativity in their respective fields. Programming includes a low residency certificate of study, continuing medical education programs, and partnerships with other academic institutions and organizations. The Center's mission is to broaden the applications for narrative and creative skills locally and internationally. www.NarrativePractice.org

About Arts Practica
Arts Practica is a medical education consultancy committed to healthcare quality improvement through arts learning experiences. Based on over a decade of collaboration with Harvard Medical School, Arts Practica creates workshops helping healthcare provides across disciplines practice art-viewing in order to apply mindful observation techniques to healthcare settings, and to enhance the human capabilities associated with expert caregiving. www.ArtsPractica.com