Burnout.
It’s a term that comes to mind for many students nearing the end of the semester or their program at the University of Florida. Those long nights spent in Smathers reviewing test prep and editing essays—and, perhaps, lamenting the life choices that leave one scrambling to meet deadlines at the eleventh hour—can take a toll. And that’s not to mention those who balance school with jobs, parenting and caregiving, and other personal obligations.
The path toward a degree is infamously exhausting. But while the path may sometimes feel insurmountable, there is a light at the end of the tunnel: graduation, new career opportunities... and the peace of having those grueling hours scrambling to meet midnight deadlines behind you.
For health workers, and students pursuing degrees in healthcare, the discussion surrounding burnout is nuanced—and worrying.
“Burnout is a specific term,” says Lindsey Telg, OTD. “We use it kind of colloquially—like, ‘I'm just feeling really burned out.’ But it's an aggregate of several symptoms of feeling depressed, disassociated, uninspired, stressed, fatigued, not able to sleep well, prone to sickness and illness.”
In 2019, the World Health Organization identified burnout as an “occupational phenomenon” caused by “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
And while symptoms of burnout appear across countless professions, they are especially acute within healthcare professions.
In a 2023 Vital Signs report, the Center for Disease Control revealed that 46% of health workers reported cases of burnout in 2022, and that 44% of health workers indicated that they would seek new employment.
With nearly half of health workers expressing deep discontent within their profession, what does this mean for healthcare students preparing to enter a turbulent—and potentially unhealthy—workforce?
“Many of our healthcare students who are training for careers right now are investing tens of thousands of dollars, hours and hours of time—years of their lives—to become highly skilled, competent professionals,” says Telg, an occupational therapist of 13 years and member of the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions Department of Occupational Therapy since 2016.
“I think it's such a tragedy that they might put all that time in to practice for a handful of years and end up too burned out to continue.”
How, then, can the field better care for its workers to prevent burnout among emerging and established healthcare professionals?
Telg will explore this issue through her work with the College of the Arts’ 2025 Creative B Summer Program, which centers the multiple ways sustainability intersects with the arts.
“We have to find some strategies that can help build a more sustainable system so that our students today aren't just learning how to do transfers or how to administer a medication,” Telg stresses. “They need to learn the survival skills that are important for making sure they can function in their healthcare careers.”
As the WHO and Telg note, burnout among healthcare workers is fundamentally tied to workplace conditions. To address the problem in its totality necessitates large-scale changes in the industry.
That is not to say, however, that healthcare students and workers are completely at a loss.
Turning to some of the roots of occupational therapy, Telg looks to the arts as a mechanism for coping with healthcare burnout.
Arts as a self-care practice
From June 30 through August 8, Telg will work with dancers, visual artists, musicians and other artists in hosting tabling stations offering art activities to healthcare students.
“We have lots of research that shows that arts-based mindfulness activities can help improve mental health and one’s sense of well-being,” says Telg.
Arts and crafts were originally a “foundational tool” in addressing mental and physical illnesses among patients during the establishment of occupational therapy as a field in the late 19th century. More recently, interventions like the Opening Minds Through Art program have seen the arts contribute to the well-being of older adults living with dementia, as well as the volunteers who assist them by facilitating art-making activities.
Current research led by the UF Center for Arts in Medicine and the center’s international research partners outlines the value of the arts as a tool for promoting health and well-being.
So, what’s stopping many healthcare workers—and likely, professionals from other fields—from taking part in the arts?
“A lot of people sort of categorize themselves as not being artistic,” explains Telg.
Her observation highlights a potential barrier to arts participation—that “talent” is a necessary prerequisite for enjoying the benefits of artmaking activities.
Through her tabling stations, Telg overcomes this hurdle by lowering the stakes of artmaking for healthcare students.
“We'll have our table station set up for two hours at a time. Students who are changing classes or have a break can stop by and do an activity that only takes about ten to fifteen minutes.”
As Telg explains, the goal of the project is to offer sustainable activities that future healthcare workers can recreate in their own professional setting—whether it be a “little dance moment” or a “doodle on a napkin.”
“The idea is to help students learn and be exposed to a practice that can build mindfulness and resilience in a short timeframe with materials that you could find in any kind of healthcare setting.”
Whether it be through dance, creative writing, poetry, or whatever medium Telg has in store for that day, Creative B invites healthcare students to find the artform that clicks for them.
Currently, the planned activities include creative writing workshops led by Andrew Hix, dance and movement workshops led by Whitney Wilson, and a visual arts workshop led by Cassie Belden.
“We're hoping that folks get to try something they've maybe not tried before,” says Telg. “So, instead of saying ‘I'm not a dancer,’ they give dance a try one week, and they might find some way of engaging with that art form that does resonate with them. And maybe dance is just never going to be the thing that brings them joy or happiness. But maybe the next week when we do poetry or creative writing, something kind of clicks for them.”
And while individual well-being remains at the center of the project’s objectives, Telg also recognizes the potential professional benefits of routine artmaking among healthcare students.
“For all the rules and procedures that exist in healthcare, there’s still a lot of gray area,” she says. “This can be hard for our students who are used to taking a lot of biology, chemistry, physics—things that have correct answers. Art is an enriching way for students to practice not always having a single right answer, because there are numerous ways to do art. In reimagining themselves as creative beings, we hope to further position students as creative problem solvers.”
Sustaining current and incoming healthcare workers
In the context of Creative B’s 2025 theme of sustainability, the long-term implications of healthcare student and worker well-being is of paramount importance.
“In the same way that there are finite resources on the planet, we don't have the option of recycling healthcare providers,” says Telg. “We will run out of water. We will run out of clean air. We will run out of trees if we don't proactively make sure that those things don't happen.”
“We will run out of doctors and nurses and occupational therapists and pharmacists—and on and on—if we don't identify some ways to make sure that they have longevity and sustainability in their careers as well.”
Amid all the promising technological innovations in healthcare, people remain the essential component in the providing of care. As Telg says, “There's no healthcare delivery without humans.”
In a field where high-stakes environments can outweigh individual needs, artmaking activities present an opportunity for healthcare workers to take time for themselves and their wellness.
Heathcare students are invited to join Lindsey Telg—occupational therapist, embroiderer, oil painter, cross stitcher and dollhouse builder—and UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine artists on Wednesday afternoons from July 2 through August 8 in the HPNP space for artmaking activities.
