Typically, doctors and nurses aren’t taught in school how to convey to families that their loved ones won’t survive. Yet these health care workers routinely deal with tragedy, illness, and death in stressful environments as part of their jobs. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, research highlighted significant stress and burnout in the health care sector. This crisis is widespread in the U.S. In 2022, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy expressed concern about the high levels of burnout among health care workers during the pandemic. If current trends persist, the U.S. will face a shortage of 1.1 million registered nurses, 3 million other health care workers, and more than 140,000 physicians by 2033. A 2022 study from the Mayo Clinic found only 58% of physicians would choose the profession again, down from 72% the previous year.
Over nearly two decades, our team—composed of physicians, researchers, creative arts therapists, and writers—has studied work-related stress impacts on health care workers. We’ve observed nearly every health care worker has a story of when their job’s weight feels overwhelming. To address this, in 2019, with backing from the National Endowment for the Arts, we launched the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab (CORAL) to use creative arts therapy to enhance health care professionals’ well-being and restore their sense of purpose. As seasoned physicians in critical care and emergency medicine, we believe integrating creativity into health care is essential. The health of the nation relies on the well-being of its health care workforce, and incorporating creativity and the arts can help transform a culture of emotional isolation affecting health care workers.
Health care workers often push themselves to extremes to find new ways to improve human health, often at the cost of their own physical, emotional, and mental health. They learn to suppress emotions and internalize negative experiences, which is unsustainable. In the 2000s, up to 80% of critical care nurses reported burnout or psychological distress, leading to high turnover, with 67% intending to leave their jobs within three years. This increased health care costs, compassion fatigue among workers, and lowered patient care quality. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified these stresses: 3 in 5 physicians reported burnout during the peak of the omicron variant in 2022. A mix of increased job demands, workload, job complexity, pressures, and intensive hours during the pandemic heightened stress among health care professionals, resulting in emotional exhaustion. Job satisfaction regarding work-life balance fell from 46.1% in 2020 to 30.2% in 2021. Post-pandemic, health care workers face a higher risk of anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Burned-out professionals are often reluctant to seek treatment, leading to increased substance use, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
In ancient Greece and Rome, the arts were a “remedy” for depression or anxiety, and tribal communities have long used dance, music, and art for healing. CORAL focuses on teaching health care workers to use art-making to process trauma and develop coping strategies through creative expression and community. Participants, including doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, and researchers, are encouraged to connect with their vulnerabilities and share unspoken stories through writing, painting, music, and movement. From 2020 to 2023, we conducted six groups of a 12-week creative arts therapy trial with health care workers working at least half-time. Participants were assigned to one of four therapy groups: art, music, dance/movement, and writing, in 90-minute weekly sessions. We assessed their anxiety, depression, burnout, PTSD, and job satisfaction through surveys before and after the intervention and compared results with a control group that did not participate.
The outcomes were significant. Participants experienced reduced burnout and were less inclined to leave their jobs. Burnout scores for anxiety, depression, PTSD, and emotional exhaustion dropped by 28%, 36%, 26%, and 12% respectively in those undergoing creative arts therapy. These benefits lasted up to a year after the program ended. Our results contribute to a growing body of evidence that creative arts therapy can effectively address health care workforce burnout worldwide. We believe it’s effective because it allows health care professionals the freedom to be imperfect, a crucial form of self-healing. Through art, they can explore and recover from trauma, building resilience and self-compassion. Though frequently labeled as “superheroes” or “guardian angels,” health care workers are human, capable of error and fatigue. The creative process encourages them to embrace their humanity and vulnerability.
For example, using a paintbrush for the first time in years can help them address suppressed emotions, buried memories, and even self-forgiveness for long-held mistakes. One CORAL participant noted, “When I am given space to unmask and show all sides of who I am, I am creative and engaged. I think more deeply and clearly. I am more willing to take the risks necessary to have breakthroughs. I am a better colleague, mentor, friend, partner, and scientist. When I feel safe and supported, I can be whole.” This article is part of the Art & Science Collide series examining intersections between art and science. You might be interested in exploring how literature influences medical careers or integrating arts into STEM fields for interdisciplinary thinking.