Humour as a nursing intervention

Therapeutic humour is defined to be any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life’s situations. This intervention may enhance health or be used as a complementary treatment of illness to facilitate healing or coping, whether physical, emotional, cognitive, social or psychological Humour can be used in all kinds of ways or situations, to relativize, make tense situations less tense or it can be used to make life more pleasant. If a nurse uses humour as an intervention in complimentary care, certain patients may complain less. This paper will look at Humour as a nursing intervention. A review of the literature was done and after the review a questionnaire was undertaken and from that questionnaire and review conclusions were drawn.

Author(s): Aschwin Van Loon Humour as a nursing intervention, Netherlands

Abstract | PDF

Share This Article