Maybe I could be a clown. One of my brothers has clowned for years, mostly at his church in Wisconsin. He really enjoys it.
This story by Elianna Bar-El story at Good magazine makes me want to know the same satisfaction medical clowns get from helping sick children. But clearly, it takes lots of training.
“On a recent visit to Wolfson Medical Center on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Yolana Zimmerman is met with audible sighs of relief.
“ ‘Great! You’re here! We need you,’ says a nurse.
“Zimmerman is not a medical doctor. In fact, she casts quite a contrast to the typical image of a doctor with her pink leggings, cupcake apron, and eyelet bloomers — not to mention the underwear on her head and the stuffed monkey in her hands.
“Yolana ‘Yoyo’ Zimmerman is part of a team of medical clowns called Dream Doctors. The pioneering organization started in 2002 with three medical clowns at one hospital and today facilitates the work of more than 110 clowns across 28 hospitals in a country increasingly recognized as the vanguard of medical clowning. After this past April’s devastating earthquake in Nepal, for instance, the Israeli government sent an envoy from Dream Doctors to Kathmandu to work with affected children. As you might expect, the medical community is taking notice of the tiny nation’s zany medical practitioners. …
“ ‘Medical clowning has developed in Israel in a different way than anywhere else in the world,’ says Professor Ati Citron, creator and director of University of Haifa’s Medical Clowning program. ‘Medical clowns were absorbed into the medical system as part of the staff.’ …
“Walking into [a] hospital room, without missing a beat, Yoyo directs her attention to a religious man sitting beside his daughter who is sleeping in a hospital bed. He is obviously reading from the Bible. ‘Is that a good book?’ Yoyo asks. ‘I think I’ve heard something about it. … Who wrote it again?’ The father looks up at her, grinning in surprise. In the same moment Yoyo doubles over with genuine laughter, igniting a cacophony of noises from a squeezable rooster in her apron. …
“In Israel, medical clowns are involved in over 40 medical procedures, including accompanying patients to CT scans, X-rays, MRIs, chemotherapy, radiation treatment, physiotherapy, and rehabilitation. Clowns in Israel also work solo to initiate a more interactive, one-on-one relationship with patients. … Dream Doctors, which works closely with Israel’s Ministry of Health and the University of Haifa … also hosts monthly workshops for the clowns where medical staff provide them with a range of medical knowledge and training on hygiene, vaccinations, before-and-after procedures for entering a room, role-playing, case studies, and more.”
Read all the details at Good.
Photo: Ziv Sade
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