Streaming Media as a Clinical Resource for Nursing Practice: Therapeutic Elements from Analysis of Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters.

Psychosocial support is becoming increasingly important for both patients and caregivers during their illness recovery journey. While various self-care strategies can be recommended by healthcare professionals (HCPs) like nurses, such as exercise and relaxation techniques, systematic guidance for evaluating the therapeutic potential of streaming media (SM) is still lacking. Patients engage with entertainment media on streaming platforms daily. Among these, Korean Wave (K-wave) content, including Korean pop (K-pop) and drama (K-drama), has gained global reach in recent years. Music therapy and narrative therapy have established evidence bases as non-pharmacological therapeutic approaches, but their potential in nursing practice is still unexplored. Through a mixed-method analysis comprising a systematic review of 90 music therapy and narrative therapy studies and a thematic analysis of Netflix's animated movie "KPop Demon Hunters" (KPDH), this study identified nine therapeutic themes that can be used for psychosocial support in nursing practices. These therapeutic themes were compiled together with evidence-based mechanisms, KPDH examples, and observable elements in SM content into KEMA (K-Wave Element Mapping and Assessment) - a digital health humanities tool that nurses can use to facilitate informed discussions through SM content that patients watch and listen to. KEMA's platform-agnostic design and cultural flexibility allow it to be used across a broad range of SM platforms and media genres to advance digital health humanities into evidence-based, actionable clinical practice.