With instructions, encouragement, and materials generously provided by Dr. Will Bynum, whose multifaceted roles at Duke include residency director, family physician, faculty mentor and researcher with special interest and expertise in the role of self-conscious emotions in the medical learning experience (and a goal of improving acceptance and authenticity among learners and their supervisors), end-of-third year / rising MS4 Anna Kulawiec led a group of interprofessional students through a mask-making workshop. A member of the MD program Well-Being committee and the organizer of the 2023-2024 “Imperfection Sessions” series, Kulawiec has spent her third year of medical school conducting research with Dr. Bynum, deepening her understanding of shame and its relation to healthy adaptation among learners in the clinical environment.
On the outside of the mask, participants were instructed to portray something reflective of their professional identity or themselves as conveyed externally. On the inside of the mask, participants were instructed to portray their internal representation.
During 90 minutes of community and creativity, participants provided supportive observations and admired each other’s work. During the last 30 minutes of the workshop, each participant shared their mask and some of the considerations that went in to its creation.
Taking the time to reflect on the ways our internal and external self-representation do (and do not) match can help deepen self-awareness and, ideally, self acceptance.
Coming in to the workshop, Kulawiec noted that she had participated as a first-year medical student. Though she had been unable to locate her MS1 mask in advance of the mask-making workshop on 5/22/2024 (and therefore did not specifically remember what that mask had looked like), she shared the following reflection:
Wednesday Wellness Workshops, which are offered in conjunction with LE WELL, are intended to foster human connection, self-awareness, and a sense of community. DukeArts Create will once again partner with LE WELL for twice-monthly workshops starting in August. Meanwhile, LE WELL is interested in your about ideas for future workshops! Please email lewb@duke.edu if you have ideas or feedback.