Why is creativity a valuable skill for health professionals? ‘Medicine is an art as well as a science’ is a cliché but it is not without truth. ‘Art’ in this context does not mean the ability to paint or sculpt. It means having the confidence to trust yourself to make sound judgements when the situation cannot be resolved by recourse to science alone. Patients do not generally present in the guise of multiple-choice questions. Often there is no possibility of a single right answer, merely options in which exercising good judgement requires a mix of intuition and intelligence. Above all, the art of medicine is the recognition that the ability to respond effectively and compassionately to people in distress is not governed by protocols or mnemonics. It requires ingenuity. We must engage our moral imaginations to think ourselves into the predicament of others. The art of good doctoring is finding a balance between identifying with patients enough to convey that they matter, and not so much that it causes you to become emotionally exhausted. Having a sound sense of yourself as a creative being equips you to tap into your own resourcefulness and imagination, to care for others and, by extension, to care for yourself.