Creative health: challenging student nurses to learn from the arts

Abstract

There is a drive to promote population health as a preventative measure. The use of creative health has been advocated to relieve pressures on healthcare services, but this can only be achieved by greater awareness of, and immersion in, such practices. The creative health placement at the University of Chester responded to this need, offering 60 student nurses an arts-based placement and the chance to explore their personal wellbeing. Such learning presented a challenge for students, as they had to reflect on their expectations of nursing placements and respond creatively to the issues facing our profession. This article reflects on their placement.

This article has been double-blind peer reviewed

In this article…

• Why it is important to bring arts-based practice into nurse education

• How students respond to creative challenges

• The benefits of creative learning for practitioner wellbeing

Key points

The 2023 Creative Health Review recommends opportunities to gain skills in creative health should be part of healthcare education

Many nursing students express little knowledge of community arts and social prescribing

Arts on prescription has grown as a solution to psychosocial problems beyond traditional clinical settings

A placement helped equip students to translate the theory of creative health into action

Both the public and practitioners themselves can benefit from arts-based interventions