Summary
In the United States, over 1 million critical care healthcare professionals treat our most seriously ill patients. As a result of their stressful work environment, these healthcare professionals often experience symptoms of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and burnout syndrome. More than ever, providers are looking for tools to help them draw on their resilience and cope with work's stressors.
Creative arts programs use a variety of media to engage with peer groups, enhance the connection to work, and cultivate positive coping skills. Our creative arts program combines visual, musical, writing, and physical expression therapies and techniques to help providers identify, explore, and transform psychological difficulties.
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Research Lab
Our team is one of a handful of research labs supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Through our partnership, we hope to create a culture that embraces art as a tool for learning and healing in our community. To learn more about the National Endowment for the Arts, visit their website here.
Our vision
We encourage healthcare providers, hospital support staff, and medical campus workers to find a creative outlet, build their identity, and establish a sense of community through the arts.
By creating a more engaged workforce, we can support healthcare workers in their efforts to improve patient outcomes, enhance patient and family satisfaction, and reduce healthcare costs.
Inspiring collaboration
We are a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, doctors, artists, and therapists seeking to harness the power of creative arts to promote the psychological health of healthcare professionals.
Together, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program at Children's Hospital Colorado, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and the National Endowment for the Arts are building capacity, engaging with the community, and conducting research that explores the psychological benefits of creative arts.
Recent highlights of our work:
How Art Therapy Is Alleviating Health Care Workers' Burnout
By Iris Kim, June 4th 2024. NBC Academy
I Tried to Cure My Work Burnout. Here is What Happened
By Jamie Ducharme, April 27th 2023. TIME magazine
An unlikely union between a hospital and a writers’ workshop is helping medical workers with trauma
by Kevin Beaty, March 20th 2023, The Denverite.
Listen to Our Team on an International Featured Podcast!
Episode #17: Dr. Marc Moss & Katherine Reed.
The art of Resilience.
Summary: In this episode, we talk about the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab at the University of Colorado Medical Campus. What does it mean to build resiliency among medical care teams? Why art is the way to do so? How medical teams actually building their resilience through the program? How is the program teaching resiliency? All these questions and more in our new episode: https://link.chtbl.com/coral
Quick Study: Helping Health Professionals with Arts Programs and Therapies
August 18th, 2022
In this episode, we discuss a study about the benefits of arts programs and creative arts therapies for healthcare workers during COVID-19. A transcript is available here.
Other highlights
The National Academies Press recently released a report titled Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being (2019). Read the report here.
CORAL was also featured in two articles highlighting the use of the arts to reduce symptoms of burnout of healthcare professionals. Check out the PBS News Hour and 5280.com features!
What’s at stake?
A healthy, productive workforce is an indispensable asset to our healthcare system. Yet caring for the nation’s sickest patients is no small task. In recent years, researchers have noticed an alarming trend in the rise of burnout and psychological distress of healthcare professionals. We have only recently started to uncover the true costs of the increasingly high demands in the healthcare professions. Psychological stress and Burnout Syndrome have been associated with quality of care, diminished patient satisfaction, and staff turnover.
Supporting healthcare professionals
The work of doctors, nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals will always be challenging. But where there are challenges, there are great rewards. That is why CORAL is focusing on strategies that seek to end the stigma of mental health issues and enhance providers’ ability to adapt to their work environment and reconnect with the purpose of their work.
Healing through the arts
Our Creative Arts Therapy (CAT) community is committed to enhancing healthcare professional well-being and alleviating psychological stress in the workplace and beyond. Through research, exhibitions, and community engagement, CORAL strives to harness the creativity within our members to build their identity, and establish a sense of community.
The opinions expressed in materials on this website are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for the Arts Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Endowment does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in this material and is not responsible for any consequences of its use. This NEA Research Lab is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (Award#: 1855492-38-C-19).