Humor and Laughing: The Benefit of Hospital Clowns in Pediatrics for Hospitalized Children and their Families: A Review

Phal, Sinat; Tardieu, Sophie; Alessandrini, Marine; Gentile, Stéphanie

doi:10.4172/2572-0775.1000128

Cited by 1 publication

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References 31 publications

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“…Studies so far mainly looked at the effect of clown visits on children who had to undergo surgery or invasive procedures and their parents. In recent reviews, it was concluded that medical clowns help in reducing psychological distress, anxiety and pain in these children and their parents (Phal, Tardieu, ALessandrini, Gentile, & Rindstedt, 2018; Sridharan & Sivaramakrishnan, 2016; Zhang, Yang, Lay, Garg, & Lao, 2017). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

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Hendriks

Batenburg

2018

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

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Purpose: To explore the effect of medical clowns and its relevant actors and conditions. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen parents who had experiences with medical clowns in the Netherlands. Four focus groups were held with seven medical clowns and 25 healthcare professionals. The interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Concerning the clown effect, we distinguished the following themes: happiness, distraction, carefree feeling and activation. This effect depended upon clown characteristics (appearance, tailoring, low-key play, making an effort); child characteristics (age, autonomy, fear, living cut off from society, communication); parent characteristics (autonomy, attitude); healthcare professional characteristics (attitude, communication); and organizational conditions (timing and planning, collaboration, accessibility, awareness). Conclusion: This study shows that medical clowns are of value for children with serious illnesses or mental disabilities in several care settings. An asset of medical clowns is that they tailor their play to the child and situation.Support of and communication with parents and healthcare professionals is critical. The proposed model of the clown effect can help shape future research. The results can help medical clown organizations to enhance their services and optimize clown encounters.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Slot

Hendriks

Batenburg

2018

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Humor and Laughing: The Benefit of Hospital Clowns in Pediatrics for Hospitalized Children and their Families: A Review

Abstract: Introduction: Laughter and humor have been reported as an effective way to achieve physiological and psychological health-related benefits to reduce pain and increase stress tolerance during medical evaluation and painful procedures.

Cited by 1 publication

References 31 publications

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

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

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