Storytelling Through Music: A Multidimensional Expressive Arts Intervention to Improve Emotional Well-Being of Oncology Nurses
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE: Rates of burnout among health care professionals are rising. Oncology nurses are at the forefront of cancer care, and maintenance of their well-being is crucial to delivering high-quality care to people with cancer. The purpose of this pilot study was to implement a novel intervention, Storytelling Through Music, and examine the effects on depression, insomnia, loneliness, self-awareness, self-compassion, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction in oncology nurses. METHODS: This two-group (intervention and control), quasi-experimental study of a 6-week intervention combined storytelling, reflective writing, songwriting, and stress management skills. RESULTS: Participants (N = 43) were predominately white (98%), with 27% reporting Hispanic ethnicity, and female (95%); their average oncology experience was 8.5 years. Both groups improved significantly over time on all measures. Compared with the control group, participants in the intervention group also had significantly less loneliness ( F[3, 98] = 7.46; P < .001) and insomnia ( F[3, 120] = 5.77; P < .001) and greater self-compassion ( F[3, 105] = 2.88; P < .05) and self-awareness ( F[3, 120] = 2.42; P < .10). CONCLUSION: There are few opportunities for health care professionals to reflect on the impact of caregiving. The Storytelling Through Music intervention provided a structured space for reflection by participants, individually and among their peers, which decreased loneliness and increased self-compassion. Both factors relate to the burnout that affects the oncology health care workforce.
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Storytelling and reflective writing as an intervention for oncology nurses increased self-awareness and self-compassion and decreased insomnia and loneliness.
“In a recent study that used storytelling and reflective writing as an intervention for oncology nurses, self-awareness and self-compassion reportedly increased, and insomnia and loneliness decreased [46].”
From Development of an artificial intelligence-based tailored mobile intervention for nurse burnout: single-arm trial (2024) · cites this paper as [46]
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- Authors
- Phillips, C. S., Volker, D. L., Davidson, K. L., & Becker, H.
- Affiliations
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Phillips, Carolyn S.
- Venue
- JCO Oncology Practice
- Published
- 2020-04
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e405-e414
- ISSN
- 2688-1527 (ISSN-L)
- 2688-1535
- PMC
- PMC7444645
- OpenAlex
- W3016031796
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 2.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2020-06-10)
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- JCO Oncology Practice (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Music Therapy and Health
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
- Keywords
- oncology nurses, emotional well-being, burnout, self-compassion, loneliness, insomnia, secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction, songwriting, reflective writing, stress management, nursing workforce
- MeSH terms
- Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, Professional, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Music, Pilot Projects
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