C. Tulinius, A. Hibble, P. Stensland, C.E. Rudebeck (2013)

In an arts-based multi qualitative method study we invited GPs, GP trainees, and all others working in general practice to submit creative or artistic descriptions of their work; photographs, videos, poems or other kinds of narratives to visualise what it means to work in Nordic general practice today. Through interviews, photo contributions and exhibitions linked to workshops at the scientific Nordic GP conferences in 2009 and 2011, we developed the descriptions of their work together with themselves.
In total 107 GPs, GP trainees and medical students took up the challenge, worked with us in different ways, resulting in this book.
The major part of this book expresses their perceptions through the many different kinds of creative and artistic contributions and their descriptions of the meanings of these contributions.

There are several ways you can read this book. It is structured by the themes resulting from the qualitative research analysis of all contributions dividing the book into thirteen areas of what it means to be a GP in the Nordic Countries.
At the back you will find “The wordy version” describing the project in the more traditional categories of design, methods, results and a few questions and remarks from the project group, both on content of the results and on the methodology we have used in this study.
So, you can choose to read it as a report of a qualitative study which has used creativity and the arts in the data collection and the communication of the results to describe the aesthetic, sensual and emotional sides of being a professional. Or, you can “read” the book as a series of visual impressions, supported by the texts the contributors wrote when sending in their photos
and the quotes from interviews where they described what they wanted to express with their contributions.
We hope you will enjoy the book!