Making the
invisible visible.
A nurse can explain a procedure in a minute. Explaining why someone finally felt safe enough to speak may take considerably longer. The first is easily counted. The second can change a life. Art of Nursing CIC exists in the space between these two truths: an independent, mission-led social enterprise connecting art, nursing, public health and education.
Art of Nursing CIC is a social enterprise organisation bringing together arts, nursing, public health and education. Through evaluation of creative health and nursing programmes, exhibitions and films and learning for nurses and health leaders, Art of Nursing CIC makes the human contribution to care visible and turns evidence into action.
The work helps people understand what makes care effective, what sustains those who provide care and what needs to change.
Read Art of Nursing’s plans for 2026–2028, meet Art of Nursing’s partners and collaborators, or commission an evaluation or discuss a partnership.
Art, science and the human contribution to care. Equally visible. Equally valued.
Art of Nursing makes the human contribution to care visible, and turns that evidence into action.
Sources: Thrive Through Menopause Evaluation Report, Final v3; Headstart Milton Keynes Impact Evaluation (2026); Foundation of Nursing Studies nurses' working lives questionnaire, Nursing Live 2026. Financial figures are modelled potential annual benefits, not realised savings.
Start with the films.
The Cape of Home, Health, Hope
Why it matters: a century-long story of four generations of nurses, from Kerry to Derby and the world. It makes visible the unseen labour of the migrant women who sustained health services, and asks what stories we will carry forward.
Watch the short filmNurses: Being Seen. Being Heard. Being.
Why it matters: what happens when nurses are truly seen and heard? For too long the most human part of nursing has been the least visible. The Artful Intelligence™ Revolution, in full.
Watch the full filmWhat Art of Nursing does
Evaluate what matters
Credible, proportionate evaluation of creative health, women’s health and workforce programmes.
ExploreChange the story
Publications, exhibitions, films and public conversations.
ExploreEnable action
Education, partnerships and practical tools for person-centred practice.
ExploreTransform gender equity
Who holds power, whose knowledge counts, who leads and who benefits.
ExploreMore ways to make
care visible.
Explore the work
Credible evidence. Lived experience.
Learning that leads to action.
“Numbers tell you whether something moved; they rarely tell you why, or for whom it did not move. I go after both.”DR MARION LYNCH
New Narratives of Nursing
09:00–12:00 · FREE · 40 PLACES
Confirmed
What if you could turn your research into a story people want to read?
What is creative health?
Creative health is creative approaches and activities that have benefits for our health and wellbeing. That is the definition in the national Creative Health Review (National Centre for Creative Health, 2023): visual and performing arts, crafts, film, literature, cooking and creative activities in nature such as gardening, alongside creative approaches to health and care services, co-production, education and workforce development. It can happen in homes, communities, cultural institutions, heritage sites and healthcare settings, and contribute to preventing ill health, promoting healthy behaviours, managing long-term conditions, and treatment and recovery across the life course.
The Review’s vision is for creative health to be integral to health, social care and wider systems: person-centred and community-led, informed by lived experience, and mobilising the creative, cultural and community assets a place already has. That definition and vision are the Review’s, quoted here as the shared national language Art of Nursing works within; the outcomes of Art of Nursing’s work are evaluated and reported separately, on the Evaluation page.
Hospital environments are part of this picture. Projects such as the Healing Walls murals at King Dinuzulu Hospital Complex in Durban, reported in South African Psychiatry (Ramlall, 2023), show how art can change the feel of a care setting - an illustration, not controlled evidence of clinical benefit. A 2021 scoping review of art in non-psychiatric hospitals found 16 studies reporting positive effects of art on well-being and behaviour (Fudickar and colleagues, 2021, published in the 2022 journal issue). The field is set out in the Arts in hospital chapter of the Routledge Handbook of Arts and Health (2025), co-authored by Dr Marion Lynch.
NCCH nursing report: Setting the Course for the Future of Nursing and Midwifery (PDF)
Read the Creative Health Review at NCCHArt of Nursing’s partners & collaborators.
Sixteen connections. Shared purpose.Explore Smart Lark Training’s published book programme
Join the Nursing Creative Health Special Interest GroupThere is more to do together.
Bring a question, a story, an idea.