By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
Sept. 25, 2009 - Patient care is serious business, yet several nurses have found humor benefits both patients and peers.
Karyn Buxman, RN, MSN, considers humor a powerful healing tool.
“[Humor] is a powerful tool that we don’t give enough credit,” said Karyn Buxman, RN, MSN, president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, co-founder of the World Laughter Tour and editor of the Journal of Nursing Jocularity. “We can apply it in our professional lives and personal lives, for our benefit, for the benefit of patients and for the benefit of our institutions. It affects health. It affects profitability.”
Buxman first became interested in the relationship between humor and health while completing her master’s degree. She now presents humor workshops to cancer and Alzheimer’s support groups, health care organizations and businesses across the country.
“It’s a simple tool,” Buxman said. “You don’t have to be funny. You don’t have to have a sense of humor. I can show people how to use humor.”
Buxman suggests that everyone memorize and be able to tell at least one short joke or story. It could be a throwaway line. Nurses enjoy physician humor, so she offered this one liner: “What’s the difference between a surgeon and a puppy? A puppy eventually grows up and quits whining.”
Nurses also enjoy humorous body fluid, death and dismemberment stories.
“We are twisted and have a dark sense of humor, and there’s good reason for that,” Buxman said. “The closer we are to tragedy and death, the darker our humor becomes.”
Deb Gauldin dressed as Krapinka and Patty Wooton as Kindheart share the benefits of humor.
But nurses must be careful not to let patients or other unintended ears overhear the “darker” kinds of humor. They should also have a bond with the person to whom they are telling the joke, Buxman cautioned.
While presenting her workshops, Buxman has found many nurses no longer consider their jobs fun. She’s set out to help change that.
“A lot of nurses are not laughing anymore,” Buxman said. “A lot of them have lost touch into why they got into the profession, and this is one tool that hopefully will get them back in touch with serving patients and [loving] what they do.”
Deb Gauldin, RN, also has become a full-time speaker, author and humorist. Speaking at conferences and boosting nurses’ morale comprise about half of her engagements.
“I’m trying to help nurses stay in the profession and keep their spirits up,” Gauldin said. Her humor practice also focuses on re-energizing women who feel overextended and under appreciated. “That’s particularly true of people in service industries like teachers and nurses.”
Gauldin encourages nurses, and women in general, to stay in the company of positive people who can make them laugh and to strive to be one of those people.
Patty Wooton, RN, PHN, began her clown career to overcome personal challenges and has since spread those skills to nurses all over the world.
Patty Wooton, RN, PHN, finds nursing can be funny and nurses have a sense of humor. Her nursing practice has spanned 40 years, mostly in critical care. She attended clown school in 1973 for her personal health and well-being and learned how to make people laugh.
“When I hid behind the mask and began to act like life was fun and funny, I found it was. All you have to do is pay attention,” said Wooton, who now works on a telemetry unit, as an outpatient radiation oncology nurse, and as a hospital clown, humorist and professional speaker. She has taught hospital clown training across the globe and written a book on the topic.
Wooton incorporates humor into her practice. She considers it a natural part of who she is as a person. She tries to keep a smile on her face, which sends a visual clue that she anticipates a pleasant experience.
“I use it to keep a lighthearted attitude and perspective on what is going on,” Wooton said. “I use it with my colleagues to help manage stress and create a bond of cooperation. And I use it with my patients. The most effective is the spontaneous quick quip.”
As an example, she may say to someone moving very slowly out of bed, “It looks like the iron in your blood has turned to lead in your butt.” She finds it lightens the mood and let’s patients join in the fun.
In her role as a home-care nurse, Kathy O’Brien, RN, a certified laughter leader, will occasionally employ some laughter techniques, without acknowledging being a laugh leader, so as not to confuse patients about her role.
O’Brien became a certified laughter leader after noticing her pediatric patients asked for less pain medication after visits by clowns.
“Laughter can reduce stress and increase the natural killer cells, the white cells,” O’Brien said.
Laughter leaders generate laughter without jokes. O’Brien gives presentations at assisted living facilities, nursing homes and at hospital staff development meetings. She starts out by asking participants to look at each other and say, “Aloha-ha-ha.” She then adds some stretching movements, clapping of hands while repeating ho-ho and ha-ha-ha, and suggesting daily exercises to help people become more cheerful.
“People enjoy it,” O’Brien said. “Whether or not you really laugh, you still get the benefit of taking a deep breath and saying ‘ha-ha, ho-ho.’”
O’Brien explains that a good hearty laugh requires one to breathe deeply, which delivers a fresh rush of oxygen. She encourages everyone to laugh, which will relieve stress and promote relaxation.
“I like to make people laugh,” O’Brien said. “It brings in positive emotions.”
Hob Osterlund, APRN, C, is researching the effect of watching comedies on cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. She’s measuring the effect on symptoms and their physiologic response. She also produces Chuckle Channel, a comedy channel for hospitals, so patients can have 24-hour access to uplifting humor. Her comedy alter-ego, Ivy Push, RN serves as the channel's host.
“Humor is good for release, period, and we all need release,” Osterlund said. “Humor is vital and a magic gift. It’s refreshing, renewing and relieving.”
Nurse Humor Resources:
Journal of Nursing Jocularity
Patty Wooton
Deb Gauldin
Hob Osterlund and The Chuckle Channel
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