The Impact of Arts Activity on Nursing Staff Well-Being: An Intervention in the Workplace.
Over 59 million workers are employed in the healthcare sector globally, with a daily risk of being exposed to a complex variety of health and safety hazards. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of arts activity on the well-being of nursing staff. During October-December 2014, 115 nursing staff working in a hospital, took part in this study, which lasted for 10 weeks. The intervention group (n = 56) took part in silk painting activities once a week. Data was collected using socio-demographic questions, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, Short Form-36 Health Survey questionnaire, Reeder stress scale, and Multidimensional fatigue inventory (before and after art activities in both groups). Statistical data analysis included descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation), non-parametric statistics analysis (Man Whitney U Test; Wilcoxon signed-ranks test), Fisher's exact test and reliability analysis (Cronbach's Alpha). The level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. In the intervention group, there was a tendency for participation in arts activity having a positive impact on their general health and mental well-being, reducing stress and fatigue, awaking creativity and increasing a sense of community at work. The control group did not show any improvements. Of the intervention group 93% reported enjoyment, with 75% aspiring to continue arts activity in the future. This research suggests that arts activity, as a workplace intervention, can be used to promote nursing staff well-being at work.
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Šiaurės pr. 57, LT-49264 Kaunas, Lithuania. simonalkka@gmail.com.
Simona
S
Karpavičiūtė
Faculty of Nursing, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eivenių g. 4, LT-50161 Kaunas, Lithuania. jurate.macijauskiene@lsmuni.lt.
Jūratė
J
Macijauskienė
D000328:Adult; D001155:Art Therapy; D005221:Fatigue / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D010151:Paintings / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*
arts activity; arts for health; mental health and well-being; nursing staff; occupational stress management; organizational well-being; silk painting; workplace interventions