Abstract
Background
Work-related psychological distress is common among health care professionals. We
determined whether 4 creative arts therapy (CAT) programs were acceptable, feasible,
and improved psychological distress and job turnover intention in health care professionals
with burnout symptoms.
Methods
Health care professionals were enrolled during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
pandemic from September 2020 until July 2021. Participants attended in-person weekly
90-minute group session for 12 consecutive weeks. Intervention and control subjects
completed surveys before the beginning and after the end of their cohort. The study
outcomes were session attendance (feasibility), program satisfaction (acceptability),
and change in symptoms of anxiety, depression, burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), and job turnover intention.
Results
We randomized 165 participants into 4 CAT interventions and 1 common control group
across 3 sequential cohorts. Thirty-five randomized participants dropped out before
the start of the cohort, and 16 were replaced from a waiting list. Therefore, the
cohort consisted of 146 participants. On average, participants were 35 years old,
white (85%), and female (92%). Overall, 52% were nurses, 10% were doctors, and 16%
were behavioral health specialists. Participants attended a median of 9.5 [8-11] sessions.
Program satisfaction was high with a median Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8)
score of 31 [17-32] out of a possible score of 32. Participants randomized to the
intervention had improvements in anxiety (P < .0001) and depression scores (P = .0007), total posttraumatic stress disorder score (P =.0002), burnout scores (P = .001, .003, .008), and turnover intention (P = .001).
Conclusions
A CAT program is feasible, acceptable, and may reduce psychological distress and turnover
intention for health care professionals.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: May 13, 2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
Funding: The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The NEA had no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in writing the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT04276922 registered on March 1, 2020.
Conflicts of Interest: None.
Authorship: All authors had access to the data and a role in writing this manuscript.
Identification
Copyright
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