Northside Hospital and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia have joined forces to battle health care worker burnout. With industrywide workplace challenges ranging from emotional exhaustion to violence on the rise, it could prove a welcome effort for Georgia nurses, doctors and others who have struggled since the pandemic.
The joint effort’s “groundbreaking” new program, “Art for Healers,” is still in the works, but promises to be a major boon for health care workers and artists alike. The program will incorporate art therapy — a science-backed practice with proven research on its benefits.
“We’re going to move these types of creative programs to the next level,” Northside’s vice president of marketing, Lee Echols, said in a news release. “By introducing health care providers to artists in an artistic setting, we hope to open a new window of relief and revival for them. The collaboration of two industries hit hard by the pandemic — health care and creative arts — has the potential to make a huge impact on both.”
The program’s requirements and specific details are still being finalized, but its launch is anticipated to coincide with the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia’s new Atlanta facility over the next year.
“MOCA GA has always focused on nurturing a thriving community where everyone has access to art and to artists,” Annette Cone-Skelton, the museum’s co-founder, president, CEO and director, said in a news release. “With Northside Hospital’s vision and support, we’ll build a dynamic program that will center art as an essential element to inspire the entire health care community to create and commune in new, meaningful ways.”
The efficacy of art therapy for health care workers has been explored by researchers, finding the practice may be an effective tool against burnout. A University of Colorado research group has been putting their nearly two decades of field experience to the test on the subject through their Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab.
Through six 12-week cohort studies, the researchers discovered “eye-opening” results. Participants — ranging from doctors, nurses, social workers and therapists to other researchers — experienced less burnout and had less desire to leave their health care jobs after receiving treatments. They scored lower for anxiety (28%), depression (36%), PTSD (26%) and emotional exhaustion (12%).
“As physicians who have worked in critical care and emergency medicine for many years, we think that this incorporation of creativity in health care is vital,” University of Colorado professor of medicine Marc Moss and CORAL program manager Rafaela Mantelli told the Conversation. “The nation’s health depends on the well-being of the health care workforce. We believe that incorporating creativity and the arts as a tool for building resiliency in health care workers could help shift the culture of emotional isolation that health care workers live in.”
Burnout has been a long-standing issue in the health care industry, but it has been significantly magnified by the pandemic. It led the International Council of Nurses to name the world’s nurse shortage a “global health emergency” last year. And Georgia remains one of the states most in need of nurses.
A survey of nurses in New York and Illinois showed 7,887 RNs left their jobs between 2018 and 2021 because of retirement, burnout, emotional exhaustion or insufficient staffing. And, according to a three-year assessment from the American Nurses Foundation featuring more than 12,000 nurse respondents completed in 2022, burnout and workplace violence remain key issues.
“These data sets reveal nurses need much more support than they are getting from their leadership and employers,” American Nurses Foundation executive director Kate Judge said in a news release. “The insights we’ve gleaned from Millennial and GenZ nurse respondents, as well as nurses of color, demonstrate that employers must dramatically shift their approach to supporting nurses, taking into account that different demographics of nursing have unique needs. Nurses leaving the profession, leaving acute care, and being burned out puts our health as a nation at risk.”
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