A magical education
BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7554.1399 (Published 08 June 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:1399
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I agree with David's point of view although I can appreciate the
concerns reagrding infection and also the need to maintain confidentiality
of inpatients.
Somewhere in the middle lies the answer. Boredom is a very valid
reason for people not liking hospitals but do we have the resources to
tackle this problem.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Mr Braude is quite right in pointing out the need for initial
training (notably on infection control and the appropriateness of certain
magic effects) for prospective hospital magicians.
Before embarking on my ‘rounds’, I discuss my route with the ward
Sister, avoiding MRSA-infected patients and those the Sister deems too ill
or unwell to enjoy the magic. I introduce myself and obtain verbal
consent from each patient. If I ask patients to touch a prop, I kindly
ask them to spray their hands with alcohol gel. I wash my own hands after
each patient. After hundreds of hospital performances, I have developed
routines which I know are appropriate.
I am puzzled by Mr Braude’s statement that my call for entertainers
“benefits the performer and ignores the safety of patients”. My point was
that it *can* benefit, in several ways, both patients and performers.
Mr Braude writes about “individual performer’s sporadic visits in
order to be humbled by others’ suffering”. When a doctor treats a patient
and is humbled by the patient’s suffering, is he ‘sporadically treating
the patient *in order* to be humbled by his suffering’?.
A professional magician might charge several hundred pounds for a
private function or a restaurant gig. To suggest that magicians who
devote their time to perform freely in a difficult environment are only
benefiting themselves and perform in order to be humbled is, in my view,
both patronising and wrong.
Competing interests:
I am the author of the article
Competing interests: No competing interests
Misdirection is a wondrous treatment for any ailment, whether by
entertainment or placebo. However, Mr Sokol’s call for entertainers to
"devote one day a year to visiting a hospital ward", benefits the
performer and ignores the safety of patients. Entertainment should be
tailored to a hospital setting, infection controlled and ward appropriate.
Card, coin and scarf contamination warrants careful scrutiny, adult and
children's wards require age appropriate shows. Regular, organised boredom
alleviation is needed, as already exemplified by Hospital Play Specialists
and Theodora Clowns for paediatric patients, rather than individual
performer’s sporadic visits in order to be humbled by others’ suffering.
As with any healthcare professional, training is required, not only in
fact but also in attitude, sensitivity and safety. Whilst performing on
wards I aim to use disposable or washable props and carefully chosen
effects, something I have only learnt through my medical training and many
hospital performances.
Philip Braude, Imperial College Medical Student and magician
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Is a hospital magician more useful than a "dignity nurse"?
Mr. Sokol should be commended for volunteering to brighten up the
lives of hospital in-patients with his magic tricks. That such tricks
should be performed with patient consent, permission of ward sisters and
sensible infection control measures (as debated above) go without saying.
I heartily approve of his rallying call to "send in the clowns" and
imagine that a volunteer hospital magician could form a valuable member of
most multi-disciplinary teams. Indeed I wonder whether benefit could be
had from hospital magicians carrying bleeps and accepting telephone
referrals from health professionals who could direct them to the glummest
and most bored of patients. Having performed their tricks, the "hospital
magician specialist" might then see fit to note what tricks were
performed, what effect they had, and if and when further follow-up were
required. We would surely all be happier for it!
I agree also with Mr. Sokol's second learning point that medical
ethicists would no doubt benefit from "brief hospital internships to
expose them to the realities of clinical practice". However in the
current climate of NHS cost cutting exercises and enforced redundancies,
my own feeling is that formal investment "welcoming ethicists into the
nitty gritty of medicine" by funding clinical positions for them (as is
done in some North American hospitals) should be discouraged in favour of
using such funds to retain doctors and nurses still in service. But keep
up the good work, volunteer hospital magicians!
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests