Visual arts, performing arts and creative writing in health professional education: A Scoping Review

Introduction Creative Health can be described as creative approaches and community-based activities which have benefits for health and wellbeing. Health professionals are seeking specific evidence-based education to equip them with the knowledge needed to advise, and recommend community-based programmes and creative arts therapies. The current review seeks to understand ‘What is known about how visual arts, performing arts, and creative writing are embedded in health and medical education?’. Given that Creative Health is a general term that can be applied to a vast array of activities the current scoping review focuses on visual and performing arts, to facilitate more specific discussions.MethodsA systematic search across six different databases [CINAHL, ERIC, Medline, AMED, Proquest Dissertations, and Web of Science] identified 6090 papers. The core search terms were 1. Visual arts; performance arts and creative writing 2. Tertiary education and 3. Descriptive statistics were used to quantify the characteristics learning activities. Thematic analysis was used to identify the intended learning outcomes from visual arts, performing arts, and creative writing in health professional education. ResultsOf the 6417 articles originally identified, 284 studies were included in the analysis from 34 different countries. Nursing was the most represented profession, followed closely by medicine. An extremely wide range of art practices were identified including graffiti, sculpture, clowning, cinematic arts, music, creative writing, poetry, dance, photo, and art viewing. The review characterises how visual arts, performing arts, and creative writing are currently being used, including the group size, setting, engagement style, and collaboration with creative practitioners. Surprisingly, only 10% of studies identified educated professionals on the evidence base underpinning creative interventions and therapies, and no mention of social prescribing was identified. Finally this review highlights that professional development (promoting empathy, communication, preparedness for practice, negative attitudes), clinical practice (critical thinking, specialist knowledge, clinical skills), and personal development (self-awareness, wellbeing) are the intended learning outcomes from visual arts, performing arts, and creative writing in health professional education.DiscussionThis review highlights the need for more educational provision in relation to patient-focussed outcomes, in community arts, creative arts therapies, and social prescribing. Future curricula could engage arts practitioners and cultural spaces more directly to support experiential learning approaches and evaluate creative techniques to identify if they can enhance student learning. Together these findings will equip medical educators and creative practitioners to join forces to develop engaging opportunities for authentic creativity, that are matched to specific learning outcomes mandated by professional registration bodies.