A look into the intervention of clowns in pediatric context: a hospital professionals perspective

Moreira, Carmen; Esteves, Hiolanda; Caires, Susana

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/4388

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Authors

Moreira, Carmen

Esteves, Hiolanda

Caires, Susana

Abstract(s)

This article aims to describe and understand the perceptions of 19 health professionals about the work of the "Clown Doctors" (CD) of Operação Nariz Vermelho (ONV) in the pediatric services (PS) of a Portuguese hospital. A study was developed after two and half years of collaboration between the hospital’s PS and this association of professional clowns. The staff’s perceptions were collected through semi-structured interviews. Their responses were submitted to a content analysis, followed by the description of the frequency of categories that emerged in their discourse. The study’s results relate a positive perception amongst most participants about the presence of CDs in the pediatric wards, highlighting several advantages for their interventions. Amongst these advantages, the participants emphasized the CD’s contributions for the relief of the hospital’s environment, the increase of good mood and well-being amongst the health professionals, and the aid that the clowns may represent for their practice. With regard to the disadvantages, obstruction to professional practice - either by interfering with the routines, either by intrusive and disruptive intervention in some more "critical" moments - as well as the specific difficulties in the cooperation, acceptance of the role and the CD’s interventions stood out. By means of the testimonies of pediatric professionals’ regarding this two-year and half experience, this exploratory study seeks to bring subsidies for the social recognition of the work of this association of professional clowns, as well as to its internal reflection, towards the growth and maturation of their training and practice.

Keywords

Pediatrics Hospital clowns Health staff Perceptions

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/4388

Citation

Moreira, C.; Esteves, H. & Caires, S. (2015). A look into the intervention of clowns in pediatric context: a hospital professionals perspective. Res Net Health. 1, e-1-11.