title: Humor in the pediatric emergency department: a 20-year retrospective.
abstract: Humorous events often take place in pediatric emergency departments without being recorded. A written account of amusing situations occurring in an emergency department has been compiled over 20 years by personnel at a large urban children's hospital. Data from this reference were analyzed for humorous content and presented in the following categories: most interesting chief complaints, suspicious sounding chief complaints, favorite telephone inquiries, and illustrative cases. This study demonstrates that an emergency department may be a fertile source of medical humor. Recognition of these statements and events helps to relieve the stress of medical training and emergency department work.
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D001877:Books; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic; D014956:Writing