چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background:Quality in healthcare has many potential meanings and interpretations. The case has been made for
conceptualisations of quality that place more emphasis on describing quality and less on measuring it through
structured, vertically oriented metrics. Through discussion of an interdisciplinary community arts project we explore
and challenge the dominant reductionist meanings of quality in healthcare.
Discussion:The model for structured participatory arts workshops such as ours is‘art as conversation’. In creating
textile art works, women involved in the sewing workshops engaged at a personal level, developing confidence
through sharing ideas, experiences and humour. Group discussions built on the self-assurance gained from doing
craft work together and talking in a relaxed way with a common purpose, exploring the health themes which were
the focus of the art. For example, working on a textile about vitamin D created a framework which stimulated the
emergence of a common discourse about different cultural practices around‘going out in the sun’. These conversations
have value as‘bridging work’, between the culture of medicine, with its current emphasis on lifestyle change to prevent
illness, and patients’ life worlds. Such bridges allow for innovation and flexibility to reflect local public health needs and
community concerns. They also enable us to view care from a horizontally oriented perspective, so that the interface in
which social worlds and the biomedical model meet and interpenetrate is made visible.
Summary:Through this interdisciplinary art project involving academics, health professionals and the local community
we have become more sensitised to conceptualising one aspect of health care quality as ensuring a‘space for the
story’ in health care encounters. This space gives precedence to the patient narratives, but acknowledges the
importance of enabling clinicians to have time to share stories about care.