Patty Wooten presents ... 
Making Humor Work:
Results of the JNJ humor study.
From Journal of Nursing Jocularity, Winter 1993, 3(4), pp 46-47.- Do nurses use humor to cope with difficult patients or situations?
- Do they feel guilty about it if they do?
- Do nurse managers use and encourage humor on the job?
- Is top level management perceived as receptive to humor?
- Are there humor programs in health care facilities? What kind?
- Acute Care Hospital: 78%
- Nursing School (educator): 8.5%
- Long Term Care: (SNF, chronic psych, rehab) 6.2%
- Ambulatory Care: (office, clinic, prison, school, occupational health) 7.3
- Nursing School (student): 2.5%
- 39% were 36-45 years old
- 31% were 26-35 years old
- 19% were 46-55 years old
- 36% were BSN prepared
- 21% were ADN prepared
- 15% were Diploma prepared
- 13% were MSN prepared
- 5.6% were PhD prepared
- 19.3% out up to five years
- 19.3% out 21-30 years
- 18.5% out 6-10 years
- 18.5% out 16-20 years
- 16.2% out 11-15 years
- 5.6% out 31-40 years
- Critical Care: 23.5%
- Medical-Surgical: 22.4%
- Emergency Dept.: 11%
- Pediatrics: 8.2%
- Psychiatry: 7%
- OR and PACU: 7%
- OB-GYN: 6.4%
- Rehabilitation: 1.7%
- Other: 36%
Since the "other" group is so large, we'll examine the description of each "other" to see if it can be reclassified within one of the standard groups. - I believe it is unprofessional for nurses to laugh about their work.
- 4% agreed
- 94% disagreed
- Humor and laughter are important and should be included in the nursing care plan.
-
72% agreed
- 20% were neutral
- 6% disagreed
- If I can laugh about some of my problems it helps me keep everything in perspective and cope better with my job stress.
-
95% agreed
- 1% were neutral
- 4% disagreed
- Most of my nursing school instructors had a good sense of humor.
-
28% agreed
- 24% were neutral
- 47% disagreed
- My student nurse buddies laughed and joked a lot together.
-
82% agreed
- 7% were neutral
- 10% disagreed
- I am able to laugh at myself and some of the mistakes I make.
-
91% agreed
- 5% were neutral
- 4% disagreed
- When stressed on the job, my sense of humor helps me cope.
-
92% agreed
- 2.7% were neutral
- 4.2% disagreed
- I worry that patients and their families will doubt my professional competence if I act silly or joke around.
-
32% agreed, and 18% were neutral
- 18% were neutral
- 50% disagreed
- My immediate manager uses and encourages humor on the job.
-
45% agreed
- 25% were neutral
- 29% disagreed
- Top level management in my facility uses and encourages humor.
-
25% agreed
- 27% were neutral
- 47% disagreed
- I try to help my patients laugh about some of their experiences.
-
82% agreed
- 13% were neutral
- 4% disagreed
- I share cartoons, jokes, funny stories with my patients and/or their families.
-
71% agreed
- neutral
- 10% disagreed
- There is a pleasant exchange of humor between physicians and nurses in my facility.
-
60% agreed
- 19% were neutral
- 19% disagreed
- Sometimes I laugh and joke with coworkers about a difficult patient, unusual code, or death on the unit.
-
83% agreed
- 9% were neutral
- 7% disagreed
- If I laugh with others about a patient's death, etc.; I feel guilty.
-
15% agreed
- 18% were neutral, and 15% agreed
- 65% disagreed
- (cont'd p.42)
- My facility has an active humor program of some type.
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Humor Bulletin Board: 9.7%
- Clown Visitation Program: 8.3%
- Comedy Cart or Library: 6.8%
- Comedy TV channel: 4.2%
- Humor Room: 2.1%
These are some of the questions that the editors, authors, and cartoonists for the Journal of Nursing Jocularity had about 2 years ago. In the fall of 1992 (vol. 2 no. 3), we published a survey asking our readers three dozen questions regarding their attitudes about and use of humor. Over 500 nurses responded and we have begun a statistical analysis of the results. As promised, we will share the results with you and we hope to make a formal presentation at the 1994 International Society for Humor Studies Conference in Ithaca, New York.
We collected basic demographic information to determine if our survey was a fair representation of the nursing profession and to correlate responses with age, years of practice, clinical setting, and type of facility. Of the 518 people responding:
Location of Practice
Age
Education
Years since Graduation from Nursing School
Professional Practice Specialty
The number of respondents (sample size), age, education level, and years since nursing school are fairly representative of the U.S. population in nursing practice today. The sample is weighted toward acute care facilities and nurses practicing in medical-surgical, emergency, and critical care departments. This may not be representative, and may limit the generalizability of our conclusions. In addition, our sample is not random, but self-selected JNJ readers, who may have a special interest or investment in humor.
Results of Survey about Humor at Work
These may not add up to 100% because some respondants left some items blank.
Discussion
Our preliminary analysis reveals some provocative findings. As we suspected, most nurses (95%) agreed that laughter helped them keep perspective and cope with job stress. 32% worried that joking around would decrease the patient's perception of their professional competence. One quarter of the sample believed their nursing school instructors had a good sense of humor, yet 82% laughed and joked with nursing student buddies. We will look at the correlation between instructor sense of humor and when the subject's basic nursing education occurred. We propose that instructors teaching recently are more likely to reveal their senses of humor than those who taught decades ago, as a function of current research on the positive effects of humor.
It was wonderful to learn that almost half of the respondents reported their immediate managers used and encouraged humor on the job. We were disappointed that only one fourth believed top level management encourages humor. This may reflect a difference between staff and upper management in valuing of humor on the job, or it may show that humor does not cross status, gender, or generational boundaries.
Only 60% believed there is a pleasant exchange of humor between nurses and physicians. We will look at correlations between clinical specialty and humor exchanged with physicians. Perhaps in areas where nurses are assumed to have more equal status (critical care, emergency, and OR) there is more humor exchanged.
Finally, while a large majority (83%) of nurses joked with coworkers about death, only 65% did not feel guilty about this. We will look at correlations between clinical setting, years in nursing, and management encouragement of humor.
This survey is quite helpful for those in the nurse-humor field. It tells us at JNJ about the areas and edges of humor in the nursing world, thereby guiding our efforts to provide a better humor forum for you.
For humor researchers, the data offers new connections and provides inspiration for future studies. Both facilitators and barriers to the use of humor can be identified.
For nurses, this exploratory survey quantifies what we have long suspected about nursing and humor. The survey shows nurses' comfort levels, improves our understanding of the current use of humor, and gives us ideas about future applications.
We look forward to publishing the research results after our final analysis is complete.
My article in the next issue of Journal of Nursing Jocularity will feature an interview with Robin Walter, winner of the JNJ scholarship and grant for implementation of a humor program. Robin is a school nurse who saw the potential in using clown training to help middle school students with behavior problems.
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This article was originally published in "Jest for the Health of It", a regular feature in the Journal of Nursing Jocularity.
Feature columnist Patty Wooten, BSN, is also a past President of the American Association for Therapeutic Humor, author of two books related to humor, and a national speaker presenting on the benefits of humor.
