Aschwin Van Loon
Amsterdam UMC, VU University Medical Center, Netherlands
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Neurol Neurophysiol
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.
References:
1. Alphen, P.J.M. van (1992), Humor in de Psychiatrie.
2. Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, Internet: http://aath.org/.
3. Baks, Mariette (2002), Humor helpt bij herstel, Nursing January 2002, pp. 18-20.
4. Bergson, Henri (1993), Het lachen, Boom, Amsterdam.
5. Bogers, Marcellino (19 maart 1997), Inleiding symposium Zorg & Humor.
Aschwin Van Loon has worked on neurology wards and neuro surgery wards for almost two decades and after working as a registered senior nurse at a rehabilitaion centre on a ward with MS, lower and upper leg amputees and paraplegic’s patients. He has always wondered why they, as nursing staff, always use humour when they are around other nurses but almost never when they are around their patients. He has started nursing care when he was in late twenties after he had done another education in sports. Finally after much taking and debating with thesis counsellor he came up with ‘Humour as a Nursing Intervention’. In 2013 while attending the World Neuroscience Congress of the WFNN in Japan he came in contact with Vicki Evans and and she helped him to publish my thesis as an article in the Australasian Journal of Neuroscience.
E-mail: aschwin@nursingwithhumour.com
