Spirituality and Creativity in Healthcare

NUR 4930/6930

For more information contact: Dr. Mary Rockwood Lane

This course gives undergraduate and graduate students in nursing, art, and other disciplines an overview of the field of Spirituality, Creativity and Healthcare. It will describe the history and physiology of Spirituality, Creativity in Healthcare, explain the use of art, writing, music and dance to heal, provide exemplars of programs that use creativity and spirituality to heal, and demonstrate the praxis of artists healing themselves, others, and the earth. The course utilizes stories of patients and artists, and guided imagery as a way of teaching. Creative art projects provide exciting opportunities for personal growth and healing. The final art project can be any art process that heals. Students have built meditation benches in the house they rented for peace, written poetry for a brother who was ill, painted their inner critic and inner artist, created portfolios of healing photographs, sculptures, or painting, and created art programs in healthcare settings. This course shows how art, spirituality and healing are one. It shows how creativity and spirituality resonate the body, mind and spirit and talks about how art is transformational to us, others, and the earth. The course discusses the future of art, spirituality and healing and talks about how spirituality and healthcare departments in universities are now helping people pray and use spiritual disciplines to heal. This course is about healing your own spirit.