Family members' perceptions of a Singing Medicine project in a children's hospital

Carolyn Blackburn

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Arts in Health projects are growing in number in the UK. One such project, Singing Medicine (SM), is offered to children with short and long-term health care needs at a Children?s Hospital in England as part of the Hospital?s Play Department. In an environment where children can experience loss of control over decisions and restricted play experiences, musical games and activities offer children affordances for choice and agency. They can also benefit parents and wider family members. In contrast to previous quantitative studies that explored the transferrable benefits of music participation for children, this paper reports on a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with families of children with long-term health care needs (ages 3 ? 14 years old). A new concept of ?The Hospital Family? is introduced from analysis of data. Family members valued relational aspects of the musical games and suggested that benefits lasted beyond the life of the child. These findings are explored in the context of ecological systems theory and Froebelian principles.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalNursing children and young people
    Volume32
    Issue number3
    Publication statusPublished (VoR) - 11 Nov 2019

    Keywords

    • Singing; Hospitals; Families; Children; Play; Musical Games

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