The Integration of Art and Health: A Descriptive Study of the Arts in Baccalaureate Nursing Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the integration of the arts within baccalaureate nursing programs across the southeast. A literature review explored the historical relationship between art and health and nursing education. Because of the multiple facets included within art and health, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing endorsed the inclusion of the arts into nursing education in its publication The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (AACN, 2008). The study was undertaken to provide an organized, descriptive assessment of the inclusion of the arts in nursing education and to uncover the nurse educator leadership perceptions of arts integration. The findings of this study suggested that the integration of the arts were not considered a priority in the baccalaureate nursing program curricula by the majority of respondent schools across the southeast. The study revealed a need for innovative andragogy in healthcare practitioner education to address the changing landscape of healthcare related to demographical shifts, heightened informatics, and advancing technologies. Additionally, the recommendations of the study suggest a need for the advancement of art and health as a specific discipline to promote research, theory, and practice that surround this intersection.