An alarm sounds on the cardiology floor of Stanford Hospital. Charge nurse Christi Kambs races to administer treatment, only to be met with the fist of the patient who was actively bleeding.

The attack, which left substantial bruising on Kambs’ leg, would lead to severe PTSD and psychological barriers for her in the following months. According to Kambs, she seriously considered quitting nursing before turning to a combination of counseling and her four-stringed friend, the violin.

Music has proven itself to be an invaluable way for many healthcare providers to decompress from the numerous stressors associated with their jobs. 

Fatigue, job-related stress and feelings of powerlessness are commonplace in hospital settings. The effects on healthcare providers are exacerbated by understaffing. According to the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, there is an expected shortage of 52,259 physicians in the U.S. by the end of this year and 81,180 by the end of 2035. For nurses, there is a projected shortage of 78,610 full-time equivalent individuals for the end of 2025. 

A major reason for the shortage can be attributed to burnout.

“Especially after COVID, a lot of people in the medical profession decided to stop practicing medicine,” said Lynn Ngai Gerber, a clinical instructor affiliate at Stanford Health Care and anesthesiologist at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. 

Bearing the brunt of poor patient behavior, navigating high pressure situations and fulfilling administrative expectations contradict the idealistic picture of healing that providers imagined before entering into medicine. 

“As medical providers, we go into the field thinking that we can make a difference,” said Stanford fourth-year medical student Melanie Ambler M.D. ’25. “Sometimes there are situations where you can’t, and that is really, really tough. When that accumulates over time, it can lead to this feeling of burnout.”

At Stanford, a program called the “Medicine and the Muse” is an artistic outlet that providers are turning towards to combat the effects of burnout. Initially, the “Medicine and the Muse” was a symposium highlighting the work of medical students awarded grants for scholarship in the intersections between arts, humanities and medicine. Since its start in 2000, the program has flourished to now include a range of programming from dance to creative writing to education. 

After work, health care providers switch their scalpels and stethoscopes for bows and reeds. The Stanford Medicine Orchestra, part of “Medicine and the Muse,” allows faculty, staff and students to rehearse and perform for the community. The Medicine Orchestra was founded in 2022 by the current concertmaster Gerber, founder Audrey Shafer, director Bryant Lin and executive director Jacqueline Genovese. 

“We had so many talented musicians within the Stanford Medicine community that expressed interest in wanting to play together,” Gerber said, explaining the founding of the group. 

For Kambs, on days when she must work 16 hour shifts instead of the normal 12, she can come to orchestra rehearsal still in her scrubs and find respite in the music she creates with those around her.

“When I get to orchestra, my brain can just focus on the notes on the page. We’re creating something that’s beautiful,” Kambs said. “If I miss a note, it’s okay. It’s not like at the hospital — if I miss something, it could be life and death.” 

This soothing effect on the mind is grounded in physiological evidence — listening to music increases oxytocin levels in the brain, which is a hormone that lowers anxiety. It also lowers cortisol, which is a stress hormone that becomes unhealthy in large quantities. 

“I think when you really enjoy music, it’s like this little haven while you’re playing,” said Anita Honkanen M.S. ’12, a pediatric anesthesiologist and flutist in the orchestra. “For me, it is a real emotional release to play music. It’s just lovely.” 

Aside from providing an outlet to decompress after work, performing in the orchestra allows members to connect with the audience by sharing the music they’ve worked hard to prepare. This creates a feeling of fulfillment for the caregivers — a feeling that can sometimes fall beneath the heaps of paperwork and lab tests that become more prevalent than healing and saving lives. 

“I love watching people’s faces while they’re listening to our music,” Kambs said. “You’re purely playing for the enjoyment of others, and you’re not having to do all the hard parts of your job.” 

However, music is not just for the musician. Many members of the orchestra have recognized the power that music has had in healing them, and thus have incorporated it as a tool to help ease patient stress and anxiety. 

Honkanen explained that when she worked in private practice, there were a few procedures requiring local anesthesia where she asked patients if they wanted to wear headphones during surgery. For one particular patient that was undergoing a knee replacement, she said, “I remember him talking to me afterwards and saying it was the most wonderful experience he’d had in a long time.”

Ambler, while still a medical student, has taken matters into her own hands to provide evidence that music interventions should be offered by institutions around the nation at no cost for the patient. In a year off from school, she is researching the effects that music has in reducing patient stress and anxiety through her initiative called Musical Rounds. The initiative consists of conversations with patients that oftentimes have terminal diagnoses, either with or without Ambler’s cello. 

“It’s a conversation between me and the patient,” Ambler said. “The cello is just an extension of my voice.”

During the conversation, Ambler guides the patient through their life, focusing on memories that, for example, “transport them to their favorite place on Earth.” She then composes an improvised piece on her cello that evokes the feeling that the patient described. After the conversation, she overlaps her improvisation with the recording of the patient speaking and sends it to their family. The recording helps build a legacy for the patient after they pass and serves as a memory for their loved ones. 

According to Ambler, while the study is not over yet, out of 44 cases, results have revealed a 39% decrease in reported pain and a 62% decrease in reported stress in patients after they listened to the piece Ambler composed.

A long-time musician, Ambler is keenly aware of the healing benefits of music. During her time as a student, amid the beeps and whirs of healthcare machinery, the soothing vibrations from her cello would weave their way through the halls. She took every break she could to sit down and play — breaks that usually only came once a day for 20 minutes.

She explained how she is truly interested in medicine, “but I can’t live without this,” she said, smiling, and tapped her beloved cello, Shelby.