Humor with your Patients
What's the best thing to perk you up when you feel down? Maybe a little joke from your friend works? Or watching that favorite comedy again? Or is it remembering something funny from your past? Humor has been proven to lighten your spirits and make you forget, if even for a minute, what caused you to get down in the first place.
I love to joke with my patients. Sometimes it's a personal funny story, other times it may be one of my corny old jokes. Occasionally the situation will remind me of another story from a former patient, and I relate that. What ever it takes, passing a smile on to your patients can help break the ice and just might make their day.
In one facility I work at, one lady from the dietary department often enters a room singing and dancing. Between that and her always present smile, everyone smiles back. It simple gestures like this that can lift spirits of all.
Some patients can give it right back though, so be prepared. I remember one neat lady I had the privilege to work with in a SNF some years ago. She was 101 years old at the time, and started every morning with her coffee and New York Times. She would read it front page to back then solve the daily crossword, and often was working on the Jumble when I would show up. We usually tried to solve it together as we worked on her exercises, leading to many funny made up words and of course many laughs. She was also a lover of my corny jokes. One day as I headed down the hall to the patient's room, I saw the floor nurse further up the hall. Wanting to speak with her, I passed my patients room and glanced in to see her sitting with her Times finishing the crossword. Just minutes later as I returned down the hall and entered the patient's room, there she was with the paper crumpled in her lap, slumped over in her chair. After a second of panic, I spun to head out for help. As I turned there was a snicker from behind me, which turned into a loud giggle. I turned to see the lady sitting up, smiling, and she says "Got Ya!"
Hope this gave you a smile. Pass it on.
Until next time, hope all your thoughts are good,
Tim