How Looking at Art Teaches Self-Discovery and Patient Care to Medical Students

PLAIN-LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Essay 

Training the Physician’s Eye: How Art Observation Teaches Self-Discovery and Patient Care to Medical Students

Background:The author recalls visiting a museum to relax and reflect before returning to her work as a chaplain at the community hospital and trauma center where she had just witnessed three deaths. She describes how viewing the paintings helped her process the loss and pain she’d experienced and shift from distress to calm. She later became a docent at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and developed her Training the Physician’s Eye: Enhancing Clinical Skills Through Art Observation course to teach medical students observational skills, emotional intelligence, and empathy.

Key Argument: The author argues that the habits trained by art observation (slow, repeated looking, noticing one’s emotional reactions, and sharing observations with the group) translate directly into better clinical practice. By learning to describe what they truly see and feel in a painting, students build the same attentiveness, respect for difference, and communication skills essential to their future roles as physicians.

Why It Matters:Regular “deep looking” at art, paired with group reflection, builds self-awareness, openness to different perspectives, and genuine curiosity. Facilitated museum visits can help integrate compassion and clinical reasoning—bringing together heart and mind to enrich patient care.    

How Looking at Art Teaches Self-Discovery and Patient Care to Medical Students

Florence Gelo, DMin, NCPsyA

College of Medicine, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania