'The Doctor' revisited during the coronavirus disease pandemic

Authors

Keywords:

COVID-19, Coronavirus, Artwork, The Doctor (painting), Health humnaities, Medical humanities, Provider-patient relationship, Painting, Tele-medicine

Abstract

'The Doctor' is a painting by Sir Luke Fildes. Created in 1891, it depicts a doctor keeping watch over a young child at the bedside in a home environment. Commissioned by Sir Henry Tate, the purpose of the painting was to portray the status of the doctor in those days. It has been used extensively by the author in health humanities courses over more than a decade; this paper shows how the painting is relevant in the teaching-learning process even today, when the world is in the grip of a pandemic and the provider-patient relationship is strained as a result of the unprecedented healthcare burden caused by the COVID-19 virus.

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Author Biography

Dr P Ravi Shankar

Dr P Ravi Shankar is a faculty at the IMU Centre for Education, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr Shankar had started a Medical Humanities module in Pokhara, Nepal and initiated and sustained a module for over five years at KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, Nepal. He had facilitated Medical Humanities modules in Aruba and Saint Lucia. He is an editorial board member of Education in Medicine Journal and is a reviewer for a number of journals. He is a PSGFAIMER Fellow in Health Professions Education. He has a keen interest in the medical humanities and in creative writing, photography and trekking. 

References

Fildes L, Sir. The Doctor. Exhibited 1891; Tate Gallery, Britain. [cited 2020, May 08]. Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/fildes-the-doctor-n01522

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Abstract art by Himani Gupta depicting human bodies occupied in various activites in a community setting

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Published

2020-05-09

How to Cite

Shankar, P. R. (2020). ’The Doctor’ revisited during the coronavirus disease pandemic. Research and Humanities in Medical Education, 7, 89–93. Retrieved from https://www.rhime.in/ojs/index.php/rhime/article/view/313

Issue

Vol. 7 (2020)

Section

Original Article

License

Copyright (c) 2020 P Ravi Shankar, MD

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