NEB Podcast #60 -
Transcript
Interviewers: Lydia Morrison, Marketing Communications Writer & Podcast Host, New England Biolabs, Inc.
Interviewee: Shelly Xie, MD, Masters Candidate, Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida
Lydia Morrison:
Welcome to the Lessons from Lab & Life Podcast, brought to you by New England Biolabs. I'm your host, Lydia Morrison, and I hope this episode offers you some new perspective. Today I'm joined by 2014 Passion in Science Award winner Shelly Xie. Shelly was a winner in the category of arts and creativity, and she performed a really moving and informative piece of sand art at NEB's 2016 Passion in Science Award ceremony. Since then, Shelly has completed medical school and is currently completing a master's in the arts and medicine program at the University of Florida. Hi Shelly. Thanks so much for joining me today.
Shelly Xie:
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Lydia Morrison:
I was hoping that you could remind our listeners what you received your 2014 Passion in Science Award for.
Shelly Xie:
Sure. I was honored to receive the Passion in Science Awards in arts and creativity for my work in using arts to communicate scientific concepts and raise awareness about various health issues.
Lydia Morrison:
I remember it was before I was hired that you received your award, but I've been to the Passion in Science Awards since then, which were so moving. Could you tell me what your award experience was like?
Shelly Xie:
Absolutely. Winning the award was incredibly encouraging and humbling, especially coming from such a prestigious institution like New England Biolabs, and it was validating as well as it reinforced my belief in the power of combining the science and medicine with the arts to create something meaningful and having that meaningful impact on our audience. It was also inspiring to meet other winners, not only in my category of arts and creativity, but also in scientific mentorship and advocacy, humanitarian duty and environmental stewardship, just to see how everybody combine their various passions in their greater pursuits.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, it's really amazing and humbling to meet all of the winners that we've selected over the years. Could you share with us what you've been up to since the 2014 Passion in Science Awards?
Shelly Xie:
Sure. Since receiving the award, I've continued to explore the intersection of arts and health, and in recent years I've been pursuing graduate studies in arts and medicine to equip myself with deeper knowledge and skills in the field of arts and medicine, both from the program development and administrative perspective, but also research and evaluation so that we can develop more programs and resources that are evidence-based and at the best practice for the targeted populations.
Lydia Morrison:
It sounds like you've been very busy. I'm just curious, did the Passion in Science Awards impact your pursuits after the awards ceremony?
Shelly Xie:
Yes, absolutely. The award not only provided validation for my work up to that point, but also opened up doors to how I pursue my passion, where I want to lead my future path. At that time, I was still in the process of figuring out how to incorporate the arts into my path in medicine, and despite the incredible experiences I've had thus far using the arts to enhance patient experience in healthcare settings and to communicate and advocate for important global health issues, I initially thought the arts would just remain as a hobby in my life, and so the awards really opened my perception of what I could do, and seeing other winners was also so inspiring to see that one can really combine their very interests and passions and lead a very meaningful career.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, I have to say your presentation, you did a sand art project on neglected tropical diseases. You did a presentation during our 2016 Passion in Science Awards. It was so, so moving. I shared it with my children. I just think it's such an amazing media to work with. Have you made any more sand art pieces?
Shelly Xie:
So actually I haven't had much opportunity and time to create new pieces. The latest one that I created was on sickle cell disease that I presented back at New England Biolabs in 2016, I believe. And since then I've been really taking the time to learn more about arts and medicine as a field and how we can incorporate the arts into the medical setting and healthcare and medical education as well to enhance not only the well-being of patients and physicians and students, but also how can we incorporate more research so that it's more data-driven and more evidence-based best practices.
Lydia Morrison:
Oh, that's really interesting. Can you explain to our listeners how art enhances the well-being of patients and healthcare providers?
Shelly Xie:
Sure. So for the patients, given my personal experience having been a volunteer artist in the hospital setting since high school and first volunteering as a musician playing various music on the floor for patients and families, and then moving on to establishing a new visual arts based program where I drew portraits for patients and families of various health conditions ranging from newborns to patients with terminal illnesses, I definitely witnessed how the arts provided safe space and the sense of normalcy for patients in the healthcare environment. Many of them are inpatient patients who have been basically spending their time in the hospital for a long duration, and that really provided a sense of normalcy and wellbeing for the patients and also allowed them to express themselves in a different way outside of just being a patient. They had just various stories to share when we interacted, and it really shows that they're a lot more than just their labels of what illness they have.
And for healthcare providers and physicians, it's important to know that their wellbeing is also very important. If they're not well, then they're not able to take care of their patients at their optimal level. And so arts definitely contribute to that enhancement of wellbeing. And also it provides sense of empathy and understanding and tolerance of ambiguity that are actually being shown through literature to be protective factors against burnout. So it's really important for everyone involve in healthcare.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, I think it's so interesting. What a beautiful service you provided within the hospital setting, I think to patients. And I totally understand how a portrait, a family portrait or an individual portrait could be so moving and help individuals feel more seen and less sort of labeled by their conditions. I think that's really amazing. And I think COVID-19 made a lot of us think about the pressure and the weight that healthcare providers like doctors and nurses carry with them. I'm curious how you think we can help take better care of our providers, of our healthcare providers and enable them to help take care of themselves.
Shelly Xie:
So as healthcare providers, we definitely always put our patients first, and that's how we are taught as well. And so in many times we're sacrificing our own wellbeing and a lot just to provide the best care for the patients, but it's also crucial to recognize and prioritize the well-being of care providers too, especially considering the demanding nature of their work. And so providing adequate resources for self-care such as mental health support services and mindfulness programs and opportunities for creative expression can really help care providers recharge and reflect on their experiences because we often feel lonely that we're not able to share that aspects with others. And there's also that perception from within, also outside that we had to be strong and to always present that image. And so to have that sense of community through the arts really helps us maintain our resilience in the face of adversity and to maintain our well-being overall.
Lydia Morrison:
I love the idea of more resources for care providers to take time to invest in themselves and also to be vulnerable in our classes and be human because I think we do have higher expectations for our care providers than perhaps for the average person. And when you think about it, it seems a little bit unfair, given the burden that they're carrying.
Shelly Xie:
Right.
Lydia Morrison:
I'm curious, do you have any new projects, new art projects or communication projects that you're thinking about or working on?
Shelly Xie:
So right now as part of my graduate studies in arts medicine, I'm working on a project, a study assessing the burnout and well-being of graduate medical trainees, including residents and fellows and across all specialties, and to see where they are currently in that particular institution. And then since the institution I work at has a excellent center for arts in medicine, and it's amazing the arts resources that they provide already to various population within the healthcare setting, I thought it would be great to see how well those resources are accessed and perceived helpful by the graduate medical trainees. Given that they have such a unique circumstance of having such busy schedule and rigorous training, it would be great to see how helpful these resources has been and where can we go from there and continue improving the programming and resources.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah. It sounds like you've found a really amazing program to continue developing your communication skills and continue the dialogue around taking care of our care providers, our scientists. I think there is a lot of pressure when you're in graduate school. I think there's a lot of pressure from faculty and staff to perform. There's a lot of long hours required and training and testing, and it is sort of a heavy cost to education. And it'd be wonderful to see more people succeed in it happily and healthfully and earn their degrees in a way that doesn't feel quite as demanding and crushing. So thank you so much for your efforts to draw attention to the struggles of being a healthcare provider in today's world in the sort of fast-paced 24/7 always available sort of world that we live in. I think that your combination of art and communication style around these topics is really engaging, and I would love to see the discussion spread further. So we're excited to help amplify your message.
Shelly Xie:
Thank you so much, and thank you so much for having me. This has been a great conversation. And yes, I would love to keep in touch and share further projects in the future.
Lydia Morrison:
That would be wonderful. Thanks so much, Shelly.
Shelly Xie:
Thank you.
Lydia Morrison:
Thanks for joining us. Shelly wanted me to make sure to thank Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine, and Barton Slatko, a long-time NEB employee on her behalf for introducing her to the Passion in Science Awards. We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Lessons from Lab & Life Podcast. Please listen again soon.
