Intervention
humour
RED NOSE, EVENTS
The “humorous visit” was offered to the patients of the intervention group. Two professional hospital clowns who were dressed in the bright style of Mr. Bean (as clown outfits and the red nose seemed unsuitable for the setting) visited the patients one or two times. The training was performed by Laura Fernandez. The primary goal was to find the connection between the clown characters “Robert “ and”Lilly”, their joy, their humour, their differences, and their abilities. This was followed by exercises to “be in the moment”, “to get in touch”, and to find a playful or calm way from there on. Improvisation was one tool for training and to establish a trustful understanding between the clown actors. As both clown actors play instruments, making music together became not only an important part for the interventions, but also a nice warm-up for the clown actors to re-focus on their goals every week before the intervention. The intervention was based on McGhee’s humour habits programme, which was adapted by Falkenberg et al. [Entering the patient’s room, the humour coaches explored the mood of the patient and tried to find an adequate vibe to communicate. They asked a couple of questions concerning the biography and important life events to find out the patient’s preferred humour style. They then tried to find humorous aspects of the current situation using equipment in the room or making up a funny song about something the patient had mentioned. If the patients were still at the palliative care ward in the following week, they prepared a second visit focusing on aspects that were dear to the patient. As planning into the future is limited for patients in palliative care, they sometimes acted out unfulfilled wishes (such as a concert with songs of a specific singer or a cruise) in a caring and humorous manner.The control group filled out the questionnaires twice and then provided saliva samples as well 1 day before the intervention group.