With such a long gap between visits to the gynaecology ward, it is hard to get a sense of continuity. Other projects, holidays and illness have got in the way and I’m finding it difficult to focus. I have given myself a deadline of Christmas to get this project completed, but I still have little idea of what it might actually look like! My plan for this visit was to start interviewing staff and possibly patients, and begin to collect ideas and phrases to work with, but when I arrived at the ward, I discovered that the emergency treatment ward I visited last time was closed and all their patients have been moved to the other ward.
The new ward also deals with gynaecological problems but has had a completely different rhythm, catering for longer-stay patients in hospital for major surgery. They are mostly older women, with more complex conditions and a different care regime. It seems likely that the two wards will amalgemate in the near future so I suggested it would be better to do another session of shadowing to get to know this new environment.
This new situation puts me in somewhat of a dilemma. My main interest was in working with women experiencing miscarriage and terminations, but they are almost exclusively day patients, who spend very little time on the ward, and don’t have much time to interact with their surroundings. The people who spend time there, and who would appreciate some art to look at, who are encouraged to walk around as part of their recovery, are the women having major surgical procedures. But those are not the patients I came to the project wanting to work with. And I’m not sure that my initial ideas will work for these patients.
