Introduction: The purpose of this review is to explore research literature beyond music therapy and music medicine studies that addresses healthcare musicians' work in hospitals. Music-related and intersectoral collaboration in contemporary healthcare may appear as if all music practitioners, including music therapists and healthcare musicians, maintain the same professional stance, harmonized goals, and orientations in their work. We argue that this is not the case, either in practice or in research, and therefore this complex field is in need of conceptual clarification as well as educational guidance. Method: A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature with PRISMA yielded 16 studies relating to healthcare musicians' work in somatic hospital settings. These studies were analysed with the quality appraisal tool CASP, utilizing the descriptive statistics and thematic approach, and assessed with the ROBIS tool. Results: Within the scope of the review, the quality of the studies, as well as the reporting of methods and analysis, were very diverse. The review indicates that the hybrid professional work of healthcare musicians in hospitals does not stem from the practices of music therapy. Instead, the healthcare musicians' work draws from different historical, societal, and philosophical contexts, developed mainly in the twenty-first century. Discussion: Despite the rich descriptions of the healthcare musicians' practice and work presented in this review, it remains questionable whether the profession of healthcare musician is already internationally established. However, the emerging movement of expanding professionalism, which healthcare musicians are a part of, needs to be addressed more clearly in practice, research, and education.

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The effect of ever-increasing life expectancy on global demographics has had a significant impact on many professional landscapes, not only in social services and healthcare but more broadly. This instrumental case study explores professional healthcare musicians’ work through their collaborative, socially engaged music-making practice in eldercare hospital wards. Two healthcare musicians were interviewed, and their work and professional practices were observed in the infection and orthopedic wards of an arts-promoting eldercare hospital. The empirical material was analyzed using thematic analysis, and finalized by instrumentalizing the case through the theoretical lens of gerotranscendence and music professionalism. The findings of the study open up a diversified understanding of aging as a transformative process of change and development, and reveal how professional music practices can support a holistic care and healthcare approach. Furthermore, it is discovered that healthcare musicians’ work as a socially engaged approach to professionalism reframes musicianship as part of an expanding professionalism, and calls for further development of higher music education as well as in-service training in the field of music.

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