
Home Institution: Georgetown University School of Medicine
Field: Arts in Health and Pediatric Nursing
Current Positions:
- President, Rollins and Associates, Inc.
- Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Pediatrics, Georgetown University School of Medicine
- Adjunct Lecturer, Center for Arts in Medicine University of Florida College of the Arts
My Driving Question
What elements of artwork in health care settings are most effective in enhancing patients’ well-being?
Scholar Project
Art with Intent: “Purpose” Built or selected Art in Hospitals
As a Nova Institute Scholar, Dr. Rollins explores the impact of contemporary “purpose” built artwork on patients, visitors, and staff in hospitals. Although art is increasingly used in healthcare settings to affect the well-being of patients and to improve the healthcare experience, little is known about what elements of the artwork are most effective in promoting health.
“Purpose built” art is contemporary art designed to promote positive outcomes for health and often is intended to challenge and provoke, in addition to being soothing and comforting. By evaluating the emotional and physiological responses to this artwork in a hospital setting, Dr. Rollins’ research has the potential to transform how art in healthcare settings is designed and used to effectively support optimal health and healing.
Read about and order Dr. Rollins’ recent book, Art With Intent: “Purpose Built” Art in Hospitals.
Learn more about Dr. Rollins’ Being Heard project exploring art and empathy in healing spaces.
Biography
Judy Rollins, PhD, RN, brings 30 years of arts and healthcare experience in research, consulting, program development, and education. She is a registered nurse with a BFA in the visual arts, an MS in child development and family studies, a PhD in health and community studies, and holds a Certificate in Evaluation Practice from The Evaluators’ Institute, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Dr. Rollins has developed programming for adults, children, families, and healthcare staff in hospitals, hospice care, and the community. Among the local arts programs she has developed are Allies in the Arts for Wounded Warriors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, ART is the heART for children and families in hospice care, and Studio G, an artists–in-residence program in pediatrics at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
She is adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department Pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, and adjunct lecturer, Center for Arts in Medicine University of Florida College of the Arts.
Dr. Rollins is editor for Pediatric Nursing and North America regional editor for the Arts & Health. Her major publications include Meeting Children’s Psychosocial Needs Across the Healthcare Continuum (2005, 2018), Therapeutic Activities for Children and Teens Coping with Health Issues (2011), and ‘Purpose-built’ Art in Hospitals: Art with Intent (2021).
In addition to book of the year awards from the American Journal of Nursing and Pediatric Nursing, Dr. Rollins is the recipient of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care Research Award, Johnson & Johnson/Society for the Arts in Healthcare Partnership to Promote Arts and Healing Award, Society for Arts in Healthcare Distinguished Fellow Award, and Georgetown University Department of Pediatrics’ Mary M. Hoobler Distinguished Service Award.
She currently serves as an Ambassador for the National Organization for Arts in Health.
Education and Training
- PhD, DeMontfort University
- MS, Oklahoma State University
- BFA, University of Tulsa
- RN, Washington Hospital Center School of Nursing
Selected Honors
- Mary M. Hoobler Distinguished Service Award, Georgetown University Department of Pediatrics, April, 2015
- The Editor’s Choice 2012 Award for The state of the arts in healthcare in the United States, Arts in Health: An International Journal of Research, Policy, and Practice, 2009.
- American Journal of Nursing 2011 Book of the Year Award for Therapeutic Activities for Children and Teens Coping with Health Issues, John Wiley & Sons
- Distinguished Fellow, Society for the Arts in Healthcare, April 2011
- Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, induction September 2007
- Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership Award, November 2006
- National Science Foundation Scholarship, June 2004
- Johnson & Johnson/Society for the Arts in Healthcare Award, 2002
- International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care/Bristol-Myers Squibb Clinical Nursing
- Practice Research Award, July, 2000, Oslo, Norway
- Pediatric Nursing 1991 Book of the Year Award for Comprehensive Child and Family Nursing Skills, Mosby Year Book
- American Journal of Nursing 1991 Book of the Year Award for Comprehensive Child and Family Nursing Skills, Mosby Year Book
Selected Publications
Articles
- Supporting Children Living with Chronic Medical Conditions Through Empathetic Art. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2020
- The vintage photograph project.
Arts & Health: An International Journal of Research Policy and Practice, 2016 - Promoting coping for children of hospitalized service members with combat injuries through creative arts engagement.
Arts & Health: An International Journal of Research Policy and Practice, 2015 - Art viewing directives in hospital settings effect on mood.
Health Environments Research & Design Journal, April 2015 - Pediatric traumatic brain injury: A brief look at the parent perspective.
Pediatric Nursing, November 2013 - Exploring the ability of a drawing by proxy intervention to improve quality of life for hospitalized children.
Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice, 2011 - Arousing curiosity: When hospital art transcends.
Health Environments Research & Design Journal, April 2011 - What a hospital should be. In W. Turgeon (Ed.)
Creativity and the child: Interdisciplinary perspectives, 2009 - The state of the arts in healthcare in the United States.
Arts in Health: An International Journal of Research, Policy, and Practice, September 2009 - The influence of two hospitals’ designs and policies on social interaction and privacy as coping factors for children with cancer and their families.
Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 2009 - Tell me about it: Drawing as a communication tool for children with cancer.
Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, July 2005
Books
- ‘Purpose-built’ Art in Hospitals: Art with Intent.
Emerald Publishing, 2021. - Meeting children’s psychosocial needs across the healthcare continuum.
PROED, 2017, 2nd ed. - Talking about Arts in Health: A white paper addressing the language used to describe the discipline from a higher education perspective.
Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida, College of the Arts, January 2017 - Arts in healthcare settings in the United States.
Oxford textbook of Creative arts, health and well-being: International perspectives on practice, policy and research, 2016 - The arts in pediatric healthcare settings.
Managing arts programs in healthcare, 2015 - Bedside arts activities.
Managing arts programs in healthcare, 2015 - Arts, Health, & Wellness.
Arts & America, 2015, Americans for the Arts - Arts, health and well-being across the military continuum: Whitepaper and framing a national plan for action.
Washington, DC: Americans for the Arts, 2013 - Bringing the arts to life: A guide to the arts and long-term care.
Washington, DC: Global Alliance for Arts & Health, 2013 - Therapeutic activities for children and teens coping with health issues.
San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2011 - Arts organizations & public health: Developing relationships and programs to address local health priorities.
Partners for Livable Communities, 2011 - The arts and human development: Framing a national research agenda for the arts, lifelong learning, and individual well-being.
National Endowment for the Arts, 2011 - Pediatric oncology palliative and end-of-life care resource.
CureSearch Children’s Oncology Group & Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses, 2010 - State of the field report: Arts in healthcare 2009.
Washington, DC: Society for the Arts in Healthcare, 2009 - Arts for children in hospitals: Helping to put the ‘art’ back in medicine.
Using the creative arts in healthcare and therapy, March 2008 - Arts activities for children at bedside.
Washington, DC: WVSA arts Connection, January 2004 - See articles & papers on PubMed