Syllabi: Creativity: Avoiding Burnout

INSTITUTION: Dartmouth Medical School

INSTRUCTOR: Naj Wikoff (email: naj.wikoff@dartmouth.edu)

FACULTY SPONSOR: Joe O'Donnell, M.D.

ENROLLMENT: Year 1 & 2 medical students (also open to years 3 & 4); elective; limit: 100

SEMESTER: Fall and Winter 1998-1999

Initial meeting with all participants. After that each person works at their own pace/schedule until project is completed. Final collective review of completed projects in May.

LEARNING GOALS:

The goals are to nurture the creative abilities that lie within each of us, and to use creativity as a means of dealing with the stress of a medical career and keeping oneself sane, i.e. using creativity as a means of keeping connected with oneself and avoiding burnout in medical school or in one's career as physician.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION:

Participants will develop a schedule with the instructor who will arrange additional support and mentoring (specialized instruction-resource people) as required.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Participants are required to take on and complete a creative project - a project that they have never tried before. It may be an individual or collaborative project (two or more may propose a group project). It may be in any medium. They may work on the project at their own pace. Some examples: write or direct a play, make a movie, paint a painting, learn the Charleston, write a volume of poetry, build a chair, make a canoe, learn calligraphy, make a ring, carve a stone, build a fountain, write and illustrate a children's book, write songs for and sing in a rock/country band, play the guitar, write a short story, learn French, Chinese, Japanese, or some other cuisine, create a cartoon strip, make a ceramic mural, make a quilt, knit a sweater, perform a stand-up comedy routine, hand tie a fly, make a ship in a bottle or conduct an orchestra. The possibilities are endless.

REQUIREMENTS: Each participant will be required to keep a journal as a means of documenting the development of the creative project. Credit will be awarded upon completion, although it should be understood that process is more important than product.

PREREQUISITES: None

MEETING PLACE: TBA

TOTAL CREDIT HOURS: 15 +/-

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Many doctors at Dartmouth and elsewhere use creativity as a means of self expression, as a change of pace, to deal with doctor related issues, or for pure fun and relaxation. Key is learning how to take on creative projects in such a manner that they can fit within the demands of being a doctor - or a medical student. This course will demonstrate that one can make time to tap our creative abilities - to do those things that one always had a hankering to do - and in so doing make ones career a more enjoyable experience.