Professional identities and motivations of musicians playing in healthcare settings: Cross-cultural evidence from UK and Italy

Abstract

The role of professional musicians playing in healthcare settings is largely non-documented, chiefly because musicians have worked on a voluntary basis or outside established music programmes. However, research in arts and health suggest that these musicians have acquired a level of expertise and that they have consequently developed a professional identity related to their work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two groups of musicians performing in healthcare settings in UK (N = 8) and Italy (N = 9) to investigate their motivations and perceived musical and interpersonal skills developed in their work. Interview data suggest that such musicians are highly motivated, wanting to perform in a variety of healthcare settings, often for strongly moral reasons, occasionally because of religious reasons. Musicians were conscious of the fact that any positive outcome of their performance was unlikely without possessing specific skills in social interaction, entailing empathy, appreciation, openness, flexibility of response and a sense of humour. The results are discussed in the light of the literature on professionalism and professional identity in healthcare settings.

Toward a nuanced understanding of musicians’ professional learning pathways: What does critical reflection contribute?

“…These results with classical musicians within the higher education level expand those from earlier studies that either focused on the role of critical reflection in student musicians’ metacognitive practice development (Esslin-Peard et al, 2016) or linked a multiplicity of social aspects to the construction of professional identities, and which have considered indie musicians at work (Beech et al, 2016), professional musicians working voluntarily in health settings (Preti & Welch, 2013), the diverse identities of preservice music teachers (Draves, 2014), or the transition of pianists from study to working life (Juuti & Littleton, 2012). First of all, we tackle professional identity by understanding it as a process concept that is linked to the entire learning pathway of each participant, and not to a particular present moment.…”

The Relationship Between Occupational Demands and Well-Being of Performing Artists: A Systematic Review

“…Further exploration of the stress and well-being process will facilitate the understanding of occupational demands and well-being within this population and assist with the development of evidence-based interventions for performing artists. Such interventions could include involvement in education programmes (Abeles and Hafeli, 2014), community engagement (Preti and Welch, 2013; Ascenso, 2016) and chamber music performances (Parasuraman and Purohit, 2000). This would allow performing artists to acquire appropriate skills to cope with the inevitable occupational demands they face and to continue working in careers they remain passionate about.…”

Music professionalism promoting gerotranscendence: An instrumental case study of healthcare musicians in an eldercare hospital

“…De Wit, 2020;Dons, 2019). Previous studies of professionals facilitating music-making in healthcare and hospital contexts feature terms such as health musicians (Ruud, 2012;Stige, 2002) and hospital musicians (Dons, 2019;Preti & Welch, 2013). In this article, we coin the term healthcare musician to highlight the importance of the interprofessional work (Cribb & Gewirtz, 2015) in musicianship that takes place broadly in all kinds of healthcare and care contexts, and without necessarily emphasizing the expectation of implications for people's health conditions that are prevalent in music therapy.…”

“…Research on musicians’ and music educators’ work in medical and healthcare environments, especially in somatic and general hospital services, has remained scarce so far, and musicians working in hospitals represent a rather new occupational group (see, however, De Wit, 2020; Dons, 2019; Koivisto & Tähti, 2020; Preti, 2009; Preti & Welch, 2013). Nevertheless, music has been practiced and performed for a long time in general and psychiatric hospitals by the eldercare patients themselves, hospital personnel, and volunteers, as well as professional musicians and music educators.…”