Section 6: Gaining Entry into a Hospital or Nursing Home Setting
Before Visiting a Patient or a Resident
Before a clown goes anywhere near a patient or a client, he or she needs to make a contact within the facility. Clowns should attempt to sell their idea to someone relatively high up in the hospital administration hierarchy. It is easier to implement a program with support from the top down. At this same conference, Patty Wooten recommended meeting with a Child Development Specialist or a Nursing Supervisor.
You’ve Made Contact, Now What?
You should begin by making an appointment to introduce yourself and your idea. It is important that you go “in plain clothes,” or in “people clothes,” to this appointment. Providing clown pictures is acceptable, but it is better to meet face to face as a person so that you visits will be taken seriously. Other things to consider bringing, could include a resume, reference letters, any PR you have had in newspapers or magazines, as well as articles about clowning and humor and health.
The meeting should start with an introduction about caring clowns. Your intentions and objectives should be stated clearly. One way to do this could be to focus on the fact that you would like to bring joy and laughter to patients and their families as well as to the hospital staff, in a professional, but lighthearted manner. This meeting is meant to obtain permission for clowns to enter and to establish guidelines the clowns should follow.
Guidelines
Often, medical settings do not have established clown programs or guidelines regarding entertainers who visit patients. Providing guidelines when you first meet with your contact will help convince him or her of your clown’s professionalism. See Appendix C for sample guidelines. You should ask your contact to review the guidelines to see if there is anything you may have overlooked or that he or she would like to add. The two of you should also discuss the hospital/nursing home regulations. Consider policies and procedures other ‘regular’ visitors are expected to follow. ‘Regular’ visitors could include other entertainers, chaplains, or volunteers.
Asking to attend the Volunteer Orientation or staff training is a good way to learn about the rules and regulations of the facility that you plan to work in. Tell your contact that you are not planning to interrupt the daily routine or to cause or create problems. Your clown plans to join with the staff and to complement their efforts, not go against them. Also include a comment on the idea that clowns can often provide that needed boost of energy and enthusiasm to staff who often work long hours in these high stress jobs.
Some hospitals/nursing homes may require a more extensive review before allowing a clown to visit. For example, Highland Hospital, in Rochester, New York, requires all potential volunteers, clowns included, to fill out a volunteer application. This includes filling out demographic and background information (i.e., criminal record), providing a resume, passing a physical exam, making sure all immunizations are up-to-date, and scheduling an interview.
You Have Been Invited to Clown!
Once your contact is interested in having a clown visit the facility, and has discussed it with the appropriate staff and administration that grant permission for you to clown, it is important to inquire about some more specific points. Areas to visit and give-a-ways are two things that need to be ironed out once you have been invited to clown. Find out which areas of the hospital or nursing home are acceptable and which areas are off-limit. While some facilities will let clowns roam anywhere, others will place restrictions on where clowns are allowed to clown around, such as only in the pediatric or geriatric wards. Sometimes after clowns have been in certain areas for a while, staff from other units will come to request that the clown be allowed to visit their areas as well. Be patient and start slowly.
If there is a specific area or floor you would like to visit but are not allowed to visit, spend a number of visits in the ‘acceptable’ areas to demonstrate what you do. Invite staff members from the area you would like to visit to tag along for a few moments. I would recommend that you only bring one staff member at a time and that he or she observe you from a distance, such as the doorway, so that he or she does not interfere with your interaction with the patient. He or she might be able to get a good picture of what you do in a social area such as a lounge or a waiting area, where the staff member could blend into the background.
You should also inquire about and get approval of any give-a-ways you plan to share with the patients. Often clowns like to leave a balloon or small gift with the person they visit. Some facilities restrict the use of balloons due to potential patient latex allergies or the danger of a balloon getting lodged in someone’s throat. However, there are plenty of other give-aways to hand out. Some of these include clown stickers, rings, friendship bracelets, or instant pictures of the clown visiting the patient. After the initial approval of the give-aways, it’s good practice for a clown to check with the head nurse of the floor they are visiting for approval there as well. Any new give-aways a clown brings over the course of time should also be approved.
Time Management
During the initial contact appointment, you should discuss realistic visiting schedules. Often when people first start clowning in hospitals or nursing homes, they don’t realize how much time and energy it takes. Most clowns require approximately one to one and a half hours to put their make up and costume on and then to take it all off. This does not include the time spent at the facility the clown plans to visit. Once the clown arrives at the facility to visit a specific floor, he or she still needs to get from the parking lot to that floor. Clowns are often stopped along the way to say hello to people or to blow bubbles in the lobby. A clown not only needs to figure in time to enter the facility but time to exit as well. A two to three hour visit on a floor could take as much as five to seven hours including the application and removal of make up and the entrance and exit time. Being “on,” or “in clown” for that amount of time in such an intense environment is a wonderful experience, but can also be exhausting. Plan accordingly.
Other/Safety
Once your clown visits have been approved, and before you actually visit a patient, you should provide the hospital or nursing home with a picture of yourself both in and out of costume with both your clown and person names on the picture. This serves as a measure of protection for both the facility and the clown. Sometimes hospitals will provide you with a reversible picture ID. This will show your clown picture and name on one side and your ‘person’ picture and name on the other side. Some hospitals might even provide a volunteer ID for your puppet if he or she is a regular visitor.
