Healthcare Clowning: Use of Specific Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Hospitalized Children

Abstract

Clowning has a varied tradition and a long history. Recently, clowns have entered the medical setting and this has become an appreciated approach aimed at decreasing the negative emotions that can be experienced during hospitalization and medical procedures, as well as inducing positive feelings in patients, their relatives, and the hospital’s staff. Due to an increase in the number of clowns working in hospitals and the large amount of interest shown in utilizing this approach, more research studies have focused on testing the efficacy of this complementary and alternative approach. This paper provides an overview of the concept of healthcare clowning followed by a literature review conducted on 28 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) drawn from two databases (PubMed and Google Scholar), aimed at investigating and discussing evidence for the effects that clowning has on children. The search revealed the different settings in which RCTs have been conducted: preoperative areas, during medical procedures, and during hospitalization. The search also identified different outcomes that were measured. In general, the results show that clown intervention is effective in decreasing negative emotions and psychological symptoms and in enhancing the well-being of patients and their relatives. Appreciation of clown intervention by healthcare staff has increased in the last several years.