Creative Health a joke or valuable learning experience; A mixed methods study

Creative Health has been recognised to be beneficial for wellbeing and population health. Recommendations have been made that health care students and professionals should receive education and practical experience of the arts. This paper reports on a pilot creative health placement for undergraduate nurses at a UK University.

To evaluate a Creative Health placement, investigating the placements impact on student's knowledge and understanding of arts-based activities, including social prescribing. To reflect on the overall value of Creative Health placements for nursing students and to make recommendations for future Creative Health placements.

A mixed methods approach was adopted using the principles of ethnography to evaluate the experiences of the students, artists, service users and practice assessors/supervisors.

Data was collected from one University Centre that facilitated the Creative Health placement.

60 Bachelor of Nursing Students, 4 practice assessors/supervisors and 6 Creative Health artists and 89 service users participated.

Ethnographic data, including artefacts, photographs, diaries, qualitative reflections were collected alongside a quantitative evaluation survey that students completed. Service user feedback forms were used to collect user experiences and two focus groups for the artist and practice assessor were employed using thematic analysis.

The placement provided the students insights and understanding about creative health and social prescribing, however there were challenges regarding conceptualising creative health as part of their nursing practice. Students talked about the impact the placement had on their own wellbeing. 81.8 % agreed working with the artists provided insight into Creative Health practice and 86.4 % indicated the placement enabled them to understand the impact of Creative Health on wellbeing. Creative Health artists and the practice assessors/supervisors wanted greater collaboration to support learning and assessment. Service users provided positive feedback about their experiences.

Overall, the placement was a success and there were valuable lessons learnt for future placement plans. We concluded that creative health placements should be an essential part of the nursing programme.