Constructed and disseminated behaviors of the hospital clown

Abstract

To investigate the clown ideologies that circulate in a hospital scenario, in this paper, we describe the origins of hospital clowns, evaluate their professional training, and discuss their contemporary role. For this descriptive, historical documentary, and qualitative study, we carried out searches in academic databases such as PubMed and LILACS in April 2021. The insufficiency of these results motivated our consultation of book collections and a documentary analysis of other sources related to clowns. Given their function of conveying lightness, humor, and comedy, we observe that hospital clowns, despite lacking a curative function, complement the treatment of patients and therefore require training in the fields of art and biosafety. Based on our bibliographic research, we also conclude that there is a great need for the training and continual education of hospital clowns who perform in a Brazilian context.