Creatively Caring: Effects of Arts-Based Encounters on Hospice Caregivers in South Africa

Abstract

International literature and experience suggest that arts-based encounters can be effective in reducing stress and burnout in health care workers. Are these principles universal? Are they as applicable and effective in resource-constrained situations in Africa as in other parts of the world? We describe the impact of creative and arts-based encounters on a group of hospice caregivers at South Coast Hospice in KwaZulu Natal. An experienced facilitator built a caring and trusting relationship with the participants over a three month period through a variety of means, including a singing and songwriting intervention specifically designed to empower and give voice to the hospice caregivers, most of whom were Zulu women. We documented the process through several rounds of interviews, extensive field notes, and audio recordings. This article is a reflection on the experience and draws from the interviews, correspondence among researchers, field notes, and a performance piece written by the facilitator one year after completion of the study. We found that the songwriting and other creative activities of the engagement provided affirmation and acknowledgment of the caregivers as well as an opportunity to release stress, grief, and pain. They experienced changes in terms of hope and freedom both for themselves and their patients. The conceptual themes that emerged from the interviews with the caregivers were interpreted in terms of their inherent cultural assets, a release of agency, a sense of revelation, and transformation. The expressive arts can have a significantly beneficial effect on hospice workers and their patients, and clinical engagement can be enhanced through creative encounters, even in resource-constrained situations. If such creative processes were to be promoted among a wider group of health workers, daily routine work in health care could be not just a repetition of well-rehearsed utilitarian rituals but rather a series of creative and transformative encounters.

The Impact of Arts Activity on Nursing Staff Well-Being: An Intervention in the Workplace

“…Joslin et al [ 41 ], emphasised that managing psychological stress will lead to improved quality of life for nurses, financial benefits for the system, and improved patient care. Arts-based encounters can be effective in reducing stress and burnout in health care workers [ 78 ]. The research of Huss and Sarid [ 79 ], suggested that it is a timely moment to search for a short term and self-initiated arts based technique of stress reduction that will access health professionals’ creative recourses as an antidote to stress at work.…”

An interprofessional collaborative approach to alleviate workplace stress among medical college faculty during COVID pandemic

“…The mere process of producing or performing art requires concentration and in this manner diverts the mind away from stressful thoughts, allowing for the basis of comparison between art and the therapeutic effect of mindfulness or meditation, which basically acts by providing a platform which is devoid of the main etiologies of stress (15). Although there is ground for belief that art-based interventions are effective in depressing the adverse physiological and psychological outcomes, the dimensions up to which these interventions improve health status is largely not deciphered (16).…”

Impact of Poetry on Empathy and Professional Burnout of Health-Care Workers: A Systematic Review

“…20 One qualitative study noted 1 of 22 participants spoke of reduced burnout specifically. 22 No conclusion can be drawn as to whether or not poetry exclusively reduces professional burnout due to lack of studies.…”

“…Overall, the hospice caregivers noted decreased stress levels, greater ability to engage in their work, and one noted reduced professional burnout. 22 Adamson et al evaluated/assessed 1 group of 8 female nurses from an urban Canadian pediatric rehabilitation hospital who participated in six 90-minute weekly group narrative sessions (1 session was attended by 7 of the 8 nurses, otherwise all others fully attended) with semistructured interviews conducted pre and postintervention. Each session started with a short reading, such as a poem or comic, followed by a guided discussion with subsequent reflective writing or drawing which was then shared.…”