PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 9559383

Humor in nursing practice: a phenomenological study.

C T Beck
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Humor is an important but underutilized resource in nurse-patient interaction. The multidimensional value of humor in providing nursing care has recently begun to receive attention. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the meaning of nurses' use of humor in their nursing practice. Twenty-one registered nurses enrolled in a graduate nursing program described in detail an experience they had using humor in providing nursing care. The 21 written descriptions were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Five themes emerged in which humor was found to (a) help nurses deal effectively with difficult situations and difficult patients, (b) create a sense of cohesiveness between nurses and their patients and also among the nurses themselves, (c) be an effective therapeutic communication technique that helped to decrease patients' anxiety, depression, and embarrassment, (d) be planned and routine or be unexpected and spontaneous, and (e) create lasting effects beyond the immediate moment for both nurses and patients.

Explore related subjects

Communication BarriersEducation, Nursing, GraduateFemaleHumansMaleNurse-Patient RelationsWit and Humor as TopicJournal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

C T Beck. 1997. Humor in nursing practice: a phenomenological study.. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0020-7489(97)00026-6

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2006

Communicative and strategic action in interpreted consultations in primary health care: a Habermasian perspective.

We report a qualitative study of accounts of interpreted consultations in UK primary care. The study sought to explore how three Habermasian tensions between (a) system and lifeworld, (b) communicative and strategic action, and (c) interpersonal and macropolitical spheres played out in the triadic consultation between clinician, interpreter and patient. In a total of 69 individual interviews and two focus groups, we collected narratives from service users (through interpreters or bilingual researchers), interpreters and doctors and other staff in general practice. We recorded, transcribed and analysed these, taking the story as the main unit of analysis. Our data suggest that the preconditions for communicative action are rarely met in the interpreted consultation. The interpreter's presence makes a dyadic interaction into a triad, adding considerable complexity to the social situation and generating operational and technical challenges. Lack of trust, intense pressure of time, mismatch of agendas (biomedical versus lifeworld), firm expectations of a specific outcome (e.g. referral, prescription) and profound power imbalances all promote strategic action (i.e. speech that seeks consciously or unconsciously to manipulate an outcome) rather than communicative action (i.e. sincere efforts to achieve understanding, and reach consensus) by all parties. In consultations interpreted by family members (an option traditionally seen as 'second best' by policy makers), the social situation is very different. Family members are generally trusted, share the lifeworld agenda, and shift the power balance in the patient's favour. The interpreter occupies multiple social roles, including translator, interpersonal mediator, system mediator, educator, advocate, and link worker. The essence of professionalism in interpreting is shifting judiciously between these potentially conflicting roles. We discuss the implications of our findings for communication with limited English speakers in healthcare consultations and for realizing contemporary policy goals such as concordance, shared decision-making, empowerment, and choice.

Communication Barriers↗