Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns
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 profess...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2018-01-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2018.1503909 |
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| author | Jesminne Bruins Slot Michelle Hendriks Ronald Batenburg |
| author_facet | Jesminne Bruins Slot Michelle Hendriks Ronald Batenburg |
| author_sort | Jesminne Bruins Slot |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8d500bb520144686b0538d3a5b9a6522 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1748-2623 1748-2631 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being |
| spelling | doaj-art-8d500bb520144686b0538d3a5b9a65222025-08-20T01:47:36ZengTaylor & Francis GroupInternational Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being1748-26231748-26312018-01-0113110.1080/17482631.2018.15039091503909Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clownsJesminne Bruins Slot0Michelle Hendriks1Ronald Batenburg2Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL)Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL)Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL)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.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2018.1503909clown doctorsmedical clownsdisabled childrenhospitalized childrenqualitative methods |
| spellingShingle | Jesminne Bruins Slot Michelle Hendriks Ronald Batenburg Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being clown doctors medical clowns disabled children hospitalized children qualitative methods |
| title | Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns |
| title_full | Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns |
| title_fullStr | Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns |
| title_full_unstemmed | Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns |
| title_short | Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns |
| title_sort | feeling happy and carefree a qualitative study on the experiences of parents medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns |
| topic | clown doctors medical clowns disabled children hospitalized children qualitative methods |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2018.1503909 |
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