*Flashback Friday*
*This post originally appeared on The PediaBlog on January 14, 2021.
Send In The Clowns
They say that laughter is the best medicine. At Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., they give big doses of it by sending in the Healthy Humor Red Nose Docs during hospital “clown rounds”:
Hospitals can seem like a scary place to children, whether they are a patient or a sibling. It can also be a frightening experience for parents who have a sick child in the hospital. To help alleviate a family’s fears and anxiety, our Clown Care team provides artistic, humorous entertainment.
The clowns are all professionally trained healers, of course:
Three days a week, these “doctors of delight” make “clown rounds” around the Main Hospital campus, a parody of medical rounds where laughter is the goal and humor is the chief treatment. The clowns use performances such as red nose transplants, kitty cat scans, funny bone exams, music and magic tricks to demystify even the most complicated, serious medical treatments and to support the emotional well-being of children and their families
The Clown Care team serves our inpatient units, intensive care units, outpatient clinics and acute care waiting areas, touching the lives of thousands of children and families each year.
Our clowns offer entertainment to children undergoing treatment for life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses, including cancer, accidental injuries, brain tumors, heart problems, craniofacial disorders, spinal cord tumors and malformations, and more.
New research published last month in the British Medical Journalfinds that clown rounds are especially helpful for young patients suffering from anxiety due to their medical situations. Cara Murez says the review of 24 separate trials examining the clinical effect of hospital clowns showed that they “can help improve both physical symptoms and the psychological well-being of children and teens through laughter and play”:
The results suggested that children and adolescents with both short-term and long-term illnesses who were in the presence of hospital clowns, either with or without a parent present, reported significantly less anxiety during a range of medical procedures. They also experienced improved psychological well-being compared with standard care.
Three trials that evaluated chronic conditions, including cancer, showed significant reductions in stress, fatigue, pain and distress in children who interacted with hospital clowns compared with standard care, the study authors said in a journal news release.
The benefits of clown care have been appreciated for some time. The front page of the newspaper Le Petit Journal illustrated how clown rounds were conducted in children’s hospital wards in Paris way back in 1908!
A word of caution: Not everyone is fond of clowns. Like most medical treatments, YMMV (your mileage may vary).
source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/01/14/flashback-friday-189/
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