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Perceptions of Healthcare Undergraduate Students about a Hospital Clown Training

Hospital clowns 
work worldwide as a health humanization resort, providing interplay with patients, 
family and staff. This type of activity varies greatly in terms of 
professionalism, accountability and artistic methods. Recently, some healthcare 
universities have introduced the clown language to undergraduates, aiming to 
train non-technical skills, often underrated in traditional healthcare 
teaching. Two 64-hour weekly hospital clown trainings were performed in a 
healthcare university in S&atildeo Paulo, Brazil, in 2011 and 2012, with students 
from different undergraduate courses. The objective of this study was to assess 
the students’ perceptions about this training. Subjects were asked to answer an 
open-ended question about their experience during the training. Answers were 
analyzed following the thematic analysis principles. Five theme categories were 
found: 1) expectations about the training; 2) perceptions of developed skills; 
3) difficulties, doubts and unquietness; 4) influences on social and academic 
settings; 5) clown concepts after the training. Students highlighted 
improvement of listening, sustaining eye contact and dealing with failure as 
important apprehended concepts. The training process was considered deep and 
serious, and generated questioning and doubts in the subjects. Students 
reported influences on their daily activities, namely relationship improvement 
with family, friends and patients and enhanced of oral presentations. The clown 
training exhibited a potential for professional attitude construction and 
reflected on the students’ lives, regarding development of interpersonal 
competencies.