Art students study nude models in order to see the structure and movement of the body unobstructed, but the nude figure in art has an importance beyond its function in learning anatomy. The nude figure over the years has been seen as representing innocence and purity, energy or emotion, power and weakness, pride and shame, pleasure and pain. There is however a difference between nudity and nakedness – nudity refers to a culturally transcendent and virtuous depiction of an unclothed body; nakedness refers to an exposed, vulnerable and embarrassing image of an unclothed body (“Sexuality in Art”, 2018).
As a physiotherapy student, working in different hospital and clinical environment settings every day, I am exposed to different forms of the human body whether it is in different sizes and shapes or colour. Art students are taught to see the abstract vision behind nude art, I am taught to objectively see how I can help the next person without passing judgment or being prejudice, unlike how the rest of society views disability.
A patient had 8/10 lower back pain with a sharp pain that travelled down her posterior leg – and this was her first time being exposed to a physiotherapy setting. In order to do an effective and thorough assessment, the patient would have to undress. Frankly, not all patients feel comfortable undressing and being naked to someone who they do not know and not having an idea of what is about to happen next. She mentioned “I am not used to being naked around strangers and I may look drowsy and medicated but I can still hear your teams conversations in the hallway”.
Do you respect the patient’s feelings and not do your job as a student physiotherapist? Do you explain the reason behind it and indirectly twist the patient’s mindset and perspective? Do you give up today and try again tomorrow? Patients want to feel clothed in a safe space especially in a new environment and to not feel ashamed with who they are or what they look like– this can be done through empathy and building a good rapport with them. We as student physiotherapists are expected to be empathetic and show a certain standard of professionalism. We are expected to understand beyond what is in front of us and handle situations in ways that the outside world wouldn’t even think of because of our experiences and acquired knowledge working with different forms of patients and their conditions.
Similarly to nude artists, we view people differently to society as we have an understanding that they don’t and we show a level of professionalism constantly because of it. It may take a while and after many opinions to actually get the message and understand the underlying reason. Their posture, their position, their mood and their general appearance all tell a story that may not always be easy to read.
Building relationships with patients and establishing some sort of partnership is important as this can make the treatment process more effective. Ethical communication and opening open gains trust – in clinical practice it requires the physician to take into account not only verbal responses from the patient but also non-verbal, such as body language, facial expressions and tone to build a level of understanding between patient and physician (Berman & Chutka, 2016). Virtuous patient communication involves recognizing and responding to the patient as a whole person. The respect model develops a patient-centered approach to communication – to succeed in this effort, it is crucial to transform knowledge and awareness into action and skills; we must partner effectively with patients whose backgrounds may differ from our own as we don’t always know or understand why a patient thinks a certain way and may not feel comfortable doing things that you are comfortable doing (“Committee Opinion No. 587”, 2014).
References:
Berman, A., & Chutka, D. (2016). Assessing effective physician-patient communication skills: “Are you listening to me, doc?”. Korean Journal Of Medical Education, 28(2), 243-249. doi: 10.3946/kjme.2016.21
Committee Opinion No. 587. (2014). Obstetrics & Gynecology, 123(2, PART 1), 389-393. doi: 10.1097/01.aog.0000443279.14017.12
Sexuality in Art. (2018). Retrieved from http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/sexuality-in-art/
4 thoughts on “Vulnerability is strength”
Great work. I really enjoyed reading your piece. You did a good job in linking up your art piece to your clinical experience. I liked your introduction, it made me want to read on and see where the story was going. It was clever in the way you used the art to compare it to the human body and exposing it. I liked how descriptive you were in how art students see the human body compared to how we as physiotherapy students see them. But I was a little confused as to what the ethical concept was in your piece. As you only touched briefly on empathy but did not elaborate on it. If I can make a suggestion: What would you do if you are in that situation again or what does the literature say should one do? You did a good job.
Thank you for the advice jamie. Will definitely take what you said into consideration
Really great piece of writing Erin! I loved how you started by making a connection between artists and physiotherapists and how the professions are so different yet they overlap in a similar way when analyzing the human body. I liked how the idea of nudity which you extracted from the art piece linked into clinical practice and your role as a physiotherapist. In order for physiotherapists to do their job the patient needs to be appropriately undressed, however not all patients feel comfortable with this. The questions you posed in the beginning of paragraph four are relatable to many student physiotherapists as we question how to handle such situations. I like the constant link back to the theme of your art piece and relating that to clinical practice. The issues addressed in this piece are common in a clinical setting among many health professionals.
In order to strengthen your piece, consider introducing the theme of empathy into your piece a bit more. Empathy was briefly introduced but expanding on the theme of empathy in your context, by using evidence, could strengthen the piece overall. Consider adding a personal touch to the piece by adding your own experience from clinical practice or what you would do if you were faced with a situation similar to what you explained above.
Your references are nicely linked and support your writing appropriately. Great writing, easy to follow and links back to the assignment brief of art and clinical practice.
Well done!
Firstly, well done on a good piece of writing. I have to agree with some of the comments that the other students gave.
You really did an awesome job in your first paragraph by explaining what the nude piece of art means. I immediately got interested in the piece and I wanted to read more to see how it relates to physiotherapy.
I think many student physiotherapist have had the same kind of experience as you with regards to undressing and exposing a patient appropriately. And by mentioning and explaining it you are definitely getting the reader’s attention and understanding.
You speak about empathy in your piece and I think it is very important that you do so. However, I would like for you to add more about empathy and how it affected you in a particular situation/scenario. How did you use/show empathy in a specific scenario?
Lastly, you did a very nice job in including references and using them appropriately. I think your last paragraph was also well written as it provides the reader evidence from what literature says we as physiotherapy should do in a those difficult scenarios.
Your piece flows nicely and I think you can be happy with it.
Johannes Steenkamp