Reimagining CPD with Arts-Based Approaches in Healthcare

Arts-based approaches are no longer a fringe idea in healthcare.

In the UK, they are increasingly recognised as valuable tools for improving health and wellbeing — not as “nice extras,” but as essential components of a broader, more sustainable approach to care.

Initiatives like social prescribing, and national reports such as Creative Health, have highlighted how the arts can support patients to:

• Improve mental and physical health

• Manage loneliness

• Support recovery

• Strengthen community connection

The NHS Long Term Plan commits to expanding access to creative activities as part of wellbeing strategies.

Organisations like Arts Council England and Public Health England have made arts and health partnerships a national priority.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing has gathered strong evidence that engagement with the arts can “help keep us well, aid our recovery, and support longer lives better lived.”

If arts-based approaches can play this kind of role for patients, it’s worth asking:

Why aren’t we using creative methods more to support healthcare professionals themselves?

Arts and Health: A Growing Foundation for Change

Over the last decade, national strategies have made it clear that creativity has a role to play in public health.

Through programmes like social prescribing and policy commitments by public health agencies, creativity is increasingly recognised not just for its therapeutic value, but for its ability to support connection, reflection, and resilience.

This evidence is shaping practice for patients.

It should also shape how we think about designing professional learning.

Why Creative Approaches Matter for Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare professionals face significant demands — not just to absorb information, but to reflect, adapt, and sustain confidence in complex environments.

Creative learning design offers practical ways to support this:

• Encouraging deeper reflection rather than passive information intake

• Supporting the development of communities of practice around shared experiences

• Engaging the emotional and relational aspects of healthcare work, not just the technical skills

• Capturing lived experiences — from both patients and professionals — to make learning more grounded and meaningful

Creativity doesn’t make learning less rigorous.

It makes it more real — more connected to how healthcare is actually practised.

How We Use Creative Approaches in CPD

At EL Healthcare Education, we use creative approaches to:

• Capture lived experience through narrative and visual methods

• Support creative reflection through activities that invite personal responses

• Design for community, not isolation — whether online or face-to-face

• Co-create patient education materials, using design thinking alongside healthcare professionals

Creativity in CPD isn’t about making learning more complicated.

It’s about designing it so that it’s more human, more relevant, and more effective.

A Call for Smarter CPD Design

The experience of arts and health initiatives shows clearly:

When we engage people creatively, they reflect more deeply, connect more meaningfully, and sustain learning better over time.

Healthcare professionals deserve that same kind of learning environment.

Designing CPD creatively doesn’t mean abandoning evidence-based practice.

It means designing experiences that:

• Build critical thinking

• Encourage engagement

• Strengthen professional identity

• Support real-world application

Conclusion and Call to Action

As we continue to rethink how healthcare education works, we have an opportunity to apply what arts and health initiatives have already proven:

Creativity strengthens learning.

If you’re designing or commissioning CPD for healthcare professionals, it’s worth asking:

• How could creativity make reflection deeper?

• How could creative methods build stronger communities of practice?

• How could we make learning experiences that are not only informative, but also sustainable and human?

At EL Healthcare Education, we support organisations to build learning that feels alive, accessible, and connected to practice — using creativity where it strengthens engagement and outcomes.

If you’re exploring new ways to design CPD, we’d love to talk.