Aging perceived through visual art observations.

A reproduction of a work of art by the Swedish artist Lena Cronquist was introduced into clinical practice in student nurse education. Student nurses (n = 366) in a first semester course served as the study population, and the study was undertaken at two university colleges of health sciences in Sweden. The students studied the painting from the point of view of a situation that depicted an elderly woman in a sickbed. The study findings implied a valuable learning situation in which the students perceived aging in a sensitive and nuanced manner.