Students use art to help patients

By Amanda Phipps

Write for credit, and help others for free.

English 320 is an Arts in Medicine course that offers students a chance to build their writing and volunteer skills simultaneously.

The class is a writing course that allows students to express themselves through art, poetry, drawing and singing, English professor Mary Martin, who teaches the class, said.

“(The students) use arts as a way of expressing themselves,” Martin said. “It is a way to help people feel whole.”

The students follow prompts to write poetry and are required to write journals as well.

She said the students also use their art to help hospital patients. The students visit the Piedmont Medical Center twice a week and bring their art to share with them. They primarily visit the second floor with the longer-term patients.

The patients read what the students write and sometimes get involved with drawing and writing themselves, Martin said.

“The arts bring (the patients’) spirits back,” she said.

Martin said the students have a rewarding experience as well.

“It’s really wonderful to be there for the patient,” she said. “It is a rewarding experience that you get a lot out of for yourself as well.”

The student volunteers also help the nurses feel better, Martin said.

“(The students’ art) is good for de-stressing the staff,” she said. “Especially the nurses.”

The students are required to volunteer at the hospital as part of the class. There are two class periods devoted to training in which students read and have discussions about the writing prompts.

A couple of students also present each chapter and choose the prompts the class will write, Martin said.

The class, which was first offered last spring, has about 17 students and three interns.

Martin has done healing work in Charlotte for 15 years and has also worked on performance projects based on poetry by cancer survivors. She said she enjoyed her work so much, she thought it was needed at Winthrop.

The class involves three interns who lead their own group of students in the hospital, said class intern and mathematics major Kristen Bell.

“It’s a very rewarding experience,” Bell said. “The best experience is when you find the right patient to connect with and who is open to experience what you are offering.”

Bell said the patients do not usually get involved with drawing themselves because most of them are cancer patients. However, the patients get more involved when the students sing, Bell said.

“You can feel the energy in the room and see the patients benefit from it,” she said. 

Though the class gives students a great volunteer experience, it also involves work, said class intern and English major Erika Patterson.

“I went into it and did not realize how many hours I would be at the hospital,” she said. “It really cuts into time.”

The class also involves an emotional aspect, Patterson said.

“We learn how to heal ourselves before going into the hospital to help others heal through the arts,” she said. “(There is) a lot of self evaluation and facing yourself (involved). It’s not easy, but it is very rewarding.”

The class requires that students want to be involved and active volunteers, Martin said.

“Students have to be engaged in it for it to work,” she said. “(The class) gives them a sense of freedom and exploration.”