Exploring the Terrain of Drama and Nursing

This chapter starts the first part of the book, which aims to build a shared conceptual framing between applied drama and person-centred nursing. This chapter begins that task by mapping the main challenges facing nursing, and how applied drama and person-centred nursing can offer solutions to these issues independently, and in a small way, how they can do so together as an interdisciplinary practice (though this will be completed more fully in Chap. 4 ). This chapter takes a journey through key concepts surrounding applied drama and nursing and explores some of the ways in which the two fields have encountered each other. This includes an in-depth examination of resonant approaches that contribute to what can be called drama and nursing. This includes explorations into arts and health, medical humanities, theatre in education, healthcare simulation, and more, creating a robust and unique picture of the field of drama and nursing across the globe. This chapter provides examples of practices and interventions, identifying points of influence for my work, and carving out a space for the approach used in my study to sit within—and indeed where it hopes to chart new waters. Though not comprehensive, this chapter presents a diverse and ranging view of the field of drama and nursing, creating a story of how the interdisciplinary field emerged conceptually and how it manifests into practice. This chapter aims to provide readers with a comprehensive sense of the field of drama and nursing, to highlight areas of greater and lesser attention, and to point towards a space that this study hopes to fill within that field.