[The art of clown theater in care for hospitalized children].
Hospitalization can be a very traumatic experience for children and their family members. The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of using clown theater art in the care for hospitalized children, starting with an activity developed by undergraduate students in the healthcare area. Data were obtained by observing 20 children and 11 students, characters in the clown theater interacting in the pediatric clinic in a school hospital in the state of São Paulo. The empirical data were analyzed with the thematic content analysis, which were grouped around the following themes: artistic expressions as a form of communication, participation of the binomial child and accompanying partner, and the clown as a therapeutic resource. The results show that this experience was a concrete intervention, emphasizing the children's development process, since it opens up a space for fantasy, laughter, happiness and the appropriation of the hospital routine; it is an example of widening the diagnostic and therapeutic process with the incorporation of intervention focusing on the affective, emotional and cultural necessities of the child and the family, in the search for non-traumatic care.
Departamento de Enfermagem Materno-Infantil e Saúde Pública da Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. limare@eerp.usp.br
Regina Aparecida Garcia
RA
de Lima
Eliete Farias
EF
Azevedo
Lucila Castanheira
LC
Nascimento
Semiramis Melani Melo
SM
Rocha
D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D006801:Humans; D027641:Laughter Therapy