The William A. Neal Museum of the Health Sciences is asking healthcare workers what one item represents their story of resilience and avoiding burnout. The question is part of a call for submissions for an upcoming exhibit titled “Getting Through: Healthcare Worker Resilience in West Virginia.”
“While burnout and resiliency have long been a part of
working in the medical field, COVID-19 brought those experiences into the
public view and attention,” Neal Museum Curator Katie Thompson said. “This yearlong
exhibit will be a space for West Virginia’s healthcare workers to share their
own stories of self-care and perseverance.”
The Neal Museum, a unit of WVU Libraries, is seeking stories
and objects for an exhibit highlighting the experiences of members of the
medical and hospital community, including medical professionals and support
staff. The items and stories can relate to COVID-19 or avoiding burnout more
generally.
For examples, a trauma coordinator whose job included coordinating testing and later vaccination clinics who, during COVID, wore the same brightly colored Crocs every day. A sample of submitted objects include a quilt, a small angel given by a patient, a Book of Common Prayer, and even a pet.
This will be a hybrid exhibit, with a selection of physical
objects or photographs of those objects and stories on display in the museum’s
Pylons Atrium exhibit case, and additional objects and narratives featured on the
museum’s website
as a virtual component.
The call for submissions will run until November 1. You can
submit your story and a picture of the object using this online form link.
Submissions should include a photo of the object, a brief
explanation of what that object means to you and your experience of resiliency.
A photo of the contributor is optional.
The curator will review all submissions and reach out to you
about the use of your object and story in the exhibit. If you are interested in
donating your object to the Neal Museum, please indicate that in your
submission form and the curator will contact you.
If you have any questions, please contact the Neal Museum at
NealMuseum@mail.wvu.edu or
304-581-2011.
“Getting Through: Healthcare Worker Resilience in West Virginia” will run in conjunction with the WVU Humanities Center and Art in the Libraries exhibit “Healthcare is Human.” Created by Dr. Ryan McCarthy, of the Eastern Campus and Beckley Medical Center, “Healthcare is Human” is open in the Pylons Commons of the Health Sciences Center remain on display through May 2024. For more information on the exhibit please visit exhibits.lib.wvu.edu/exhibits/healthcare-is-human.