The sustaining value of humour in ICU
(Read full report at sciencedaily.com) !
Humour can play an essential role in the most serious healthcare settings, even when patients are receiving intensive or end of life care, according to research in the April issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing 1. Canadian researchers spent nearly 300 hours observing and carrying out interviews with staff, patients and families in an intensive care unit and a palliative care unit for people with terminal illnesses. They concluded that humour played an essential role in promoting team relationships and adding a human dimension to the care and support that staff provided to seriously ill patients and their families.
The researchers found that staff used humour in a number of ways, including:
- To cope with, and sometimes distance themselves, from difficult situations.
- To connect with other healthcare professionals and provide mutual support.
- To reduce tension when things don't go as well as they could do.
- To connect with patients and make them feel cared for as individuals.
- To reduce patients' embarrassment with the indignity of needing help with toileting and other highly personal functions. When a patient suffered an episode of incontinence she reported that she found the nurse's matter of fact humour - "what goes in must come out" - made her feel less distressed.
However, the researchers also found that humour could also create distance and prevent serious discussion. As one nurse commented: "If I'm joking with you, I'm interacting with you. We're talking but I don't ask you what's bugging you...I'm not really finding out why you're upset."
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Then there was the satisfaction that staff felt when they saw a patient smile. "It makes you feel you've done something, if not medically, maybe emotionally" said one nurse.
"Some people feel that humour is trivial and unprofessional in healthcare settings, but this study shows that it is neither" says co-author Dr Ruth Dean, a nurse researcher from the University of Manitoba.
"One member of staff referred to humour as the glue that holds human connections together, a statement that was clearly reinforced by our findings" says Dr Dean. 'Our research suggests that nurses and other healthcare professional don't need to suppress humour...'
Reference: click to get article
Ruth Anne Kinsman Dean PhD, RN, Joanne E Major MN, RN (2008) From critical care to comfort care: the sustaining value of humour Journal of Clinical Nursing 17 (8) , 1088–1095
