Determining the effects of therapeutic clowning on nurses in a children's rehabilitation hospital

Abstract

Objective: This pilot study aimed to determine the effects of therapeutic clowns for hospitalized children on their nurses. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 13 nurses explored perceptions of the clowns. Measures of physiological arousal, emotion and anxiety were also obtained from nine of these 13 nurses under two conditions -the presence or absence of therapeutic clowns on the unit. Results: Physiologically, the automatic nervous system signals of eight of the nine nurses exhibited consistent changes in patterns of responding when the clowns were present. Emotionally, nurses' reports of negative mood states were also reduced; no changes in anxiety were found. Qualitative data corroborated these findings and suggest that although therapeutic clowns expressly work with children, they also have a relational impact. Conclusions: Clowning seems to improve communication, role negotiation and the meaning of the unit as a social and physical place. A recommendation for mixed method research designs is offered to determine varied effects of arts-based interventions on stakeholders within healthcare settings.

Clowning in health care settings: The point of view of adults

“…A Canadian study by Blain, Kingsnorth, Stephens, and McKeever (2012) that involved 13 nurses investigated the effects of therapeutic clowns on hospitalized children. In addition to questionnaires, in nine cases, measurements of physiological arousal, emotion, and anxiety were obtained, both during the presence and the absence of clowns.…”

Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns

“…As found by Blain et al (2012) and Van Venrooij and Barnhoorn (2017), the clown effect is enhanced by close collaboration and communication between medical clowns and healthcare professionals. In other countries, for instance Israel, medical clowns are involved in medical procedures, and they cooperate closely with hospital staff.…”

“…To our knowledge, there is only one study that explored the response of children with mental disabilities to therapeutic clowns (Kingsnorth, Blain, & McKeever, 2011). Furthermore, there are only a few studies on how clowns themselves value their work (Linge, 2008) and the experiences of healthcare professionals (Barkmann, Siem, Wessolowski, & Schulte-Markwort, 2013; Blain, Kingsnorth, Stephens, & McKeever, 2012; Ford et al, 2014; Linge, 2011). For example, clowning may improve communication among healthcare professionals and affect the nurse–patient relationship (Blain et al, 2012).…”

Wearable Technology for Detecting Significant Moments in Individuals with Dementia

“…The objective of this subcomponent was to detect events in the cleaned, high-quality data that corresponded to a salient moment for the user. The dominant physiological modality that manifests emotional processing varies from individual to individual [21, 22], and the characteristics of the changes within this dominant modality also vary according to multiple factors, including sex, age, and time of day [23]. Thus, in broad terms, event detection required (1) tuning the parameters for detecting specific features within each signal and (2) varying the relative weight of contribution of each of the three physiological signals.…”