Funny Bone Necessary to Deal with Stress.....

[Inga]

If you think that the last place humor and laughter should be found is in a hospital setting -- think again. Both are as prevalent and necessary between hospital walls as bed pans and stethoscopes.

"Because of our abilities to put our hands on our patients, you get into unique situations that can catch you and the patient off guard. Situations can happen unexpectedly that allows for humor," said Faye Lindquist, the director of clinical programs and services at Swedish Medical Center. She is responsible for daily operations at the 697-bed First Hill campus.

"This is a high-stressed, fast-paced environment that covers both ends of the spectrum," Lindquist said. "You can be there when a baby is born or when a life leaves this world. When you deal with families and patients in stressful situations, in appropriate circumstances, humor can lighten a mood."

Nurses' high-stressed jobs are only more so these days -- given the current shortage of such employees in the health-care system. The system needs -- in addition to nurses -- medical aides, laboratory personnel and radiology technologists, among others.

Year after year, various surveys demonstrate inequality between supply and demand when it comes to training enough health-care employees to fill vacancies. In 2001, Washington hospitals reported 1,402 staff nurse full-time equivalent vacancies. By 2010, the hospitals estimate that vacancy rate will increase as the state's nurses reach retirement age, and the state's nursing schools are producing about 1,200 new nurses per year, it is not nearly enough to fill immediate vacancies and those created by retiring nurses.

Humor can help nurses deal with the stress of their profession, said Patty Wooten, an RN for more than 25 years. She is a professional speaker and lecturer from California, who now works full time addressing the importance of therapeutic humor.

"Humor adds a touch of human caring in the high-tech world of health care," Wooten said. "It can increase the trust and rapport between patient and caregiver if it is used in an appropriate manner, and at the right time."

Unlike get-well cards, humor can provide an acceptable cathartic release of hostile feelings, she said.

Humor in a health-care setting has long been something that patients as well as staff can use to cope with illness, stress, embarrassment and anxiety, according to Vera Robinson, a retired nurse and one of the pioneers in the research of humor and nursing. She was awarded the 2001 lifetime achievement award by the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor last year for her years of research work on therapeutic humor.

"I first recognized how important humor was as a nursing student in the 1940s. We used it to cope with the stress and demands of going to school," said Robinson, who lives in Denver.

Humor is a phenomenological, emotional process, she said.

"It's not physical," Robinson said. "We can measure changes occurring with laughter, but you can't measure the effect of humor because it's part of the whole caring process, affecting the body, mind and spirit."

Laughter can block the negative hormones associated with stress and prohibits -- at least temporarily -- obsessive worry, feelings of depression and hopelessness, said Marilyn Grey, a former psychologist, now a local humorist and public speaker. When a person laughs the chemical messages released into the body are related to emotions and health, she said.

"Humor has a way of breaking up an intense situation, which is especially true in health care," Grey said. "Your clothes are gone, stuff happens to you that you don't understand. To a large degree you are helpless except what you can say. You only have two things left they can't take away, your mind and your mouth."

Take the male patient that Lindquist -- who has been a nurse for more than 20 years -- cared for when she was just in her second year of nursing.

She had been working on the pediatric floor when she floated to an adult unit. One of the first things she said she noticed were the smells.

They're just a tad stronger.

Lindquist remembers going into a semiprivate room to empty a male patient's ileostomy bag. The smell that drifted up and out of the bag was enough to turn her stomach.

Lindquist said she knew she was going to vomit. Quickly, she headed for the bathroom. It, however, was occupied by the other patient. So Lindquist pulled open her blouse and threw up. She changed her top and returned to the patient's room. As she was completing the procedure, the patient asked, "Is that you who smells or me?" Lindquist answered, "Probably a little of both." Both patient and nurse had a good chuckle over the incident.

"Changing the bag was a normal procedure, it was the timing that was off," Lindquist said.

Sometimes you have to try to see the funny part of the job to make it through and find humor in life. The more you laugh the less stress you have. Stress can amplify illness and disease. What do you do to releave stress at the job?