Nursing students' perceptions and attitudes about humor and its incorporation into nursing practice
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Date
1987
Department
Nursing
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Abstract
Humor is beginning to be seriously recognized as a basic
human need and acknowledged for the adaptive behavior it is
defining. Research focusing on the use of humor in nursing
is limited and the use of humor by nursing students has not
been investigated. The purpose of this study was to describe
nursing students' perceptions and attitudes about humor and
their use of humor in nursing practice. A questionnaire, designed for this study, was used to
collect data in three main areas: (1) humor's value as
perceived by the nursing students, (2) the activities of
nursing students which reflected the use of humor in their
care, and (3) curricular emphasis on humor. Of the 100
enrolled Junior and Senior baccalaureate nursing students,
89% volunteered to participate in this descriptive study. The data was analyzed using correlation coefficients and
chi-square analysis. The large majority of the students
viewed their sense of humor as "strong" but their beliefs
about humor as a coping strategy and as a nursing
intervention were less clear. This study found that the
clinical use of humor by the nursing students was generally
nonexistent and curricular emphasis on humor elicited
overwhelmingly negative responses. The research offers information for the population
surveyed and has important implications for nursing practice,
education, and research.