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Supporting Resources

If you are looking to become a 'creativity champion', this page contains everything you'll need. There is further information about the links between creativity and wellbeing, as well as detail on the specific tasks we have designed. You can also find some suggestions for how to facilitate a 'creativity culture' at your place of work. Finally, there are some train-the-trainer resources for anyone hoping to introduce these methods to colleagues. 

Click the following for a pop-out to the articles

The Benefits of Creativity

Creative health: challenging student nurses to learn from the arts

This paper evaluates a novel creative health placement for student nurses at the University of Chester, designed to integrate arts-based practice into nurse education and support wellbeing.

Creative health, endorsed by the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH), refers to arts and creative activities that benefit health and wellbeing (e.g., music, dance, visual arts, gardening). It aligns with social prescribing and is part of the UK’s NHS Long Term Plan.

The findings of the research found:

  • Initial resistance: Many students were skeptical, seeing creative practice as less valuable than traditional clinical placements.

  • Transformational experiences: Over time, students reported improved communication, empathy, self-reflection, personal wellbeing, and understanding of person-centred care.

  • Broader impact: The placement changed students’ perceptions of nursing and highlighted the importance of holistic and preventative approaches.


Creative health placements can foster important professional and personal growth, enhance wellbeing, and broaden student nurses’ understanding of holistic care. The authors advocate embedding such experiences across nursing curricula to align with public health and social prescribing goals.

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Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing
Second Edition

This UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report investigates the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing, presenting evidence, case studies, and policy recommendations.

Strong evidence shows arts participation can improve mental health, enhance quality of life for people with long-term conditions, aid recovery, and reduce healthcare costs. Such as: physical health (e.g., improved outcomes in chronic conditions), mental health (reduced anxiety, depression, and social isolation), public health (supports prevention, wellbeing, and community resilience), end-of-life care: (enhances dignity and comfort), child development (supports learning and emotional regulation).

Arts engagement promotes self-expression, social connection, and a sense of purpose, while reducing reliance on purely medical interventions. Creative health can reduce NHS demand and provide cost savings (e.g., social prescribing reduces GP visits).

The report calls for a cultural shift in health and social care, moving from a narrow biomedical focus to a holistic model where arts play a key role in prevention, recovery, and long-term wellbeing.

Effects of Arts-Based Pedagogy on Competence Development in Nursing: A Critical Systematic Review

To investigate how arts-based pedagogy (ABP) influences the development of professional competencies in nursing, with a focus on creativity, empathy, and reflective practice.

The study found an improved empathy and ability to see patients’ perspectives. Enhanced self-reflection and critical thinking, a greater communication skills and teamwork. Increased tolerance for ambiguity and openness to multiple interpretations. An emotional & cognitive impact was also found, participants reported deeper emotional engagement with learning. Arts activities encouraged non-linear thinking and creative problem solving.

Arts-based pedagogy can be a powerful tool for developing both technical and humanistic competencies in nurses, fostering the holistic, person-centred mindset that modern healthcare demands. For maximum impact, integration into curricula must be intentional, guided, and linked clearly to professional standards.

Embedding Creativity in Your Practice

Applying the Prism Model to design arts and humanities medical curricula

This paper offers a practical guide for using the Prism Model to design arts and humanities (A&H) curricula in medical education. It's purpose is to help medical educators intentionally design A&H curricula that develop crucial clinical competencies (e.g., empathy, communication, tolerance for ambiguity).

The Prism Model is an evidence-based framework organizes A&H pedagogy into four key functions:

  1. Skill Mastery - Developing clinical skills through A&H activities.

  2. Perspective Taking - Encouraging understanding of others’ viewpoints.

  3. Personal Insight - Promoting reflection and self-awareness.

  4. Social Advocacy - Inspiring critical reflection on societal inequities.


The Prism Model offers a structured, intentional approach to designing impactful A&H curricula. While further validation is needed, it supports alignment between educational goals, activities, and evaluation strategies.

Creative health: challenging student nurses to learn from the arts

This paper evaluates a novel creative health placement for student nurses at the University of Chester, designed to integrate arts-based practice into nurse education and support wellbeing.

Creative health, endorsed by the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH), refers to arts and creative activities that benefit health and wellbeing (e.g., music, dance, visual arts, gardening). It aligns with social prescribing and is part of the UK’s NHS Long Term Plan.

The findings of the research found:

  • Initial resistance: Many students were skeptical, seeing creative practice as less valuable than traditional clinical placements.

  • Transformational experiences: Over time, students reported improved communication, empathy, self-reflection, personal wellbeing, and understanding of person-centred care.

  • Broader impact: The placement changed students’ perceptions of nursing and highlighted the importance of holistic and preventative approaches.


Creative health placements can foster important professional and personal growth, enhance wellbeing, and broaden student nurses’ understanding of holistic care. The authors advocate embedding such experiences across nursing curricula to align with public health and social prescribing goals.

Screenshot 2025-08-06 at 19.52.34.png

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

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a Creative Health placement for undergraduate nursing students at a UK university, exploring its impact on students' understanding of arts-based activities and social prescribing, and its value within nursing education.

Many students agreed that working with artists offered insight into Creative Health practice. As well as felt the placement enhanced their understanding of how arts impact health and wellbeing. Allowing students to develop soft skills like communication, empathy, teamwork, and self-awareness. Many students reported personal wellbeing benefits from participating in arts-based activities.

Overall students felt the placement was effective and enriching, despite early resistance. It supports recommendations by the NCCH and APPG for integrating arts into healthcare education. Creative health placements should be considered a valuable, if unconventional, part of nursing curricula. The authors call for broader inclusion of such experiences and better preparatory frameworks.

Screenshot 2025-08-06 at 19.50.48.png

Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing
Second Edition

This UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report investigates the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing, presenting evidence, case studies, and policy recommendations.

Strong evidence shows arts participation can improve mental health, enhance quality of life for people with long-term conditions, aid recovery, and reduce healthcare costs. Such as: physical health (e.g., improved outcomes in chronic conditions), mental health (reduced anxiety, depression, and social isolation), public health (supports prevention, wellbeing, and community resilience), end-of-life care: (enhances dignity and comfort), child development (supports learning and emotional regulation).

Arts engagement promotes self-expression, social connection, and a sense of purpose, while reducing reliance on purely medical interventions. Creative health can reduce NHS demand and provide cost savings (e.g., social prescribing reduces GP visits).

The report calls for a cultural shift in health and social care, moving from a narrow biomedical focus to a holistic model where arts play a key role in prevention, recovery, and long-term wellbeing.

Effects of Arts-Based Pedagogy on Competence Development in Nursing: A Critical Systematic Review

This paper investigates how arts-based pedagogy (ABP) influences the development of professional competencies in nursing, with a focus on creativity, empathy, and reflective practice.

The study found an improved empathy and ability to see patients’ perspectives. Enhanced self-reflection and critical thinking, a greater communication skills and teamwork. Increased tolerance for ambiguity and openness to multiple interpretations. An emotional & cognitive impact was also found, participants reported deeper emotional engagement with learning. Arts activities encouraged non-linear thinking and creative problem solving.

Arts-based pedagogy can be a powerful tool for developing both technical and humanistic competencies in nurses, fostering the holistic, person-centred mindset that modern healthcare demands. For maximum impact, integration into curricula must be intentional, guided, and linked clearly to professional standards.

Screenshot 2025-08-06 at 19.57.25.png

Examining arts-based practice in midwifery education: An integrative review

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Resources for Delivering Creative Toolkit Workshops

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The Compassionate Kitbag: A creative and integrative approach to compassion-focused therapy

This paper explores the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Compassionate Kitbag - a set of creative, sensory, and reflective tools for health and social care professionals to enhance compassionate care, wellbeing, and communication in practice.

The Compassionate Kitbag is  portable collection of items such as art materials, sensory objects, reflective prompts, and conversation aids. It's intended to support: self-care for practitioners, compassionate connections with patients, families, and colleagues, and creative engagement in care contexts.

This study found positive impacts on:

  • Communication and rapport with patients

  • Staff wellbeing and stress reduction

  • Encouraging creativity and reflective practice


Providing a tangible way to integrate creative health principles into everyday care. This helped practitioners feel empowered to personalise interactions and offer more humanised care.

The Compassionate Kitbag is a practical, creative tool that aligns with broader arts in health and person-centred care strategies. It can enhance both care quality and practitioner wellbeing if supported by organisational culture and adequate training.

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