CORAL's creative writing program battling nurse burn out

Hello GSLC AACN Members,

We’re excited to share an opportunity from the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab (CORAL), an interdisciplinary team based out of the University of Colorado School of Medicine dedicated to supporting healthcare worker well-being and reducing burnout through evidence-based creative arts therapy.

CORAL will be expanding to the St. Louis region beginning Spring 2026 and is offering a virtual creative writing program for healthcare professionals. Below is their full message with details on participation, eligibility, and how to sign up. Space is limited, so please review and share within your networks if interested.

Hello,

We are the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab, also known as CORAL. Our team, based out of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, is an interdisciplinary group of doctors, researchers, and creative arts therapists who joined together to help improve resiliency and reduce symptoms of burnout in healthcare workers. We conducted two Randomized Controlled Trials, both of which demonstrated that our Creative Arts Therapy program significantly reduces depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, burnout, and the likelihood that someone will leave their job. These results were consistent for both primarily patient-facing and primarily non-patient-facing healthcare workers, and the effects of the program persisted up to one year. 

We are writing to you today to announce that we are coming to St. Louis! 

Beginning in Spring 2026, CORAL will be offering our creative writing program in a virtual format for healthcare professionals across the St. Louis region. Spaces are very limited, so if you are interested, please follow the links/QR code below to complete an interest and consent form. Additionally, if you could pass this information through your networks, we are trying to ensure all departments are well represented. Below are some more details!

Who: Healthcare professionals who work at least part-time.

What: We will be testing the efficacy, acceptability, and feasibility of a Creative Arts Therapy program delivered virtually. You will be compensated for your time participating in the program.

When: The CORAL program is 12 weeks long, and participants meet once a week for 90 minutes. When you consent to join the study, you will be randomized to either virtual writing or the waitlist control. For those in virtual writing, there will be two different groups, which meet on different days/times of the week. We will confirm the days/times of those groups once we receive your feedback on which works best for the most people! For those randomized to the waitlist control, you will only fill out surveys for the first phase of the study. You will then be offered a spot in virtual writing for the second phase of the study. 

Where: Sessions will be entirely online! We ask that you have a reliable device, Wi-Fi, and a private space to join each week.

Additional details: 

·                 All study surveys are anonymous and will not be holistically shared beyond the study team.

·                 More information to come on start dates, links to sessions, and more! 

Contact: If there are any questions or concerns, please reach out to our research manager, Aliza, at aliza.anderson@cuanschutz.edu 

Sign up: Here is the link, https://redcap.link/bl3pf5fb, as well as the QR code to our secure platform, if you are interested in signing up/learning more: