Arts in health care: a new paradigm for holistic nursing practice.

Bringing creativity into health care has opened up a new dimension in nursing. Creative interventions have been shown to shorten hospital stays and reduce the patient's need for pain medication. In response to these benefits, many major medical centers around the world have instituted arts in health care programs. Arts in Medicine is one such program that serves hundreds of patients. It was established by a nurse at the University of Florida and is directly tied to nursing care. Programs like this provide clinical models for nurses who want to integrate the arts into their health care practice. This article presents these models and discusses ways that nurses can easily implement creative interventions into their practice.