Children's Hospital | News & Events | Publications | . . . on their way | Back Issues | Summer 2007

Message from Kevin B. Churchwell, M.D.

Our images of medicine, hospitals and healing - the ones we see on Grey's Anatomy, on ER and House - show scrubs and surgical masks, needles and IVs, bed rails and monitors. It is a familiar visual environment for those of us past the age of 10. But for those of us who are younger, those images are frightening, unreal and threatening.

That is why the design of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt has drawn such high praise for having a design and architectural feeling that softens and soothes. Whimsy and fun sit side by side with science and technology. As important as the architectural detail is the art that infuses the Children's Hospital with playfulness and warmth and comfort.

"The Importance and Value of Art in Health Care Settings" was the title of a landmark national symposium that Vanderbilt co-sponsored with the Society for Arts and Healthcare at Sotheby's in New York in 2006. The conference was the brainchild of Donna Glassford, our director of Cultural Enrichment and a leading voice in the international movement to use the arts to humanize health care - and even improve healing.

And the evidence is mounting - the arts do have an impact on health and well-being. Premature infants exposed to music gained weight faster and went home with their moms three days earlier than normal. Patients who awoke after surgery to pastoral pictures recovered faster, took less pain medication and went home earlier than patients who did not. Countless studies demonstrate that cancer patients have improved physiological response to cancer therapies when exposed to music, and that the elderly experience less depression, disorientation and loneliness when music is part of their daily routine.

In this issue of …on their way, we introduce you to Jenny Plume, the music therapist for Children's Hospital. Her role strengthens and reinforces a decades-long effort to infuse healing with art. Betty Ashton Andrews has served as our harpist in residence since 1997. The National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) has brought artists from Garth Brooks to Faith Hill, from Allison Krauss to Brooks and Dunn to visit our patients for the past 15 years. And just this year we launched a partnership with New York-based Musicians on Call to bring its wonderfully successful program to Nashville.

We take great pride in the visual arts that make such a difference in the feel of Children's Hospital - the paintings of Deloss McGraw, sculptures by Maurice Blik and Bill Doak, M.D., and the chapel's stained glass that was commissioned locally by Emmanuel Glass. It is a museum-quality exhibit of visual art in healing. So proud are we of this collection and its influence on the well-being of children and their families that we have commissioned a book to document the collection and the generous donors who have made it possible. You'll hear more about this exciting project in the coming months.

Kevin B. Churchwell, M.D.
interim chief executive officer
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt