{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02280130293159609, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.426778242677824, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Poor wee souls and fraggle rock: The visceral humor of nurse-peers in a non-accomplishment setting

Abstract This paper reports the nurse-peer interactions of a negative case; a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) working with female drug users in the area of sexual and reproductive health – derived from a qualitative constructivist grounded theory study looking at spontaneous humor in Clinical Nurse Specialist – patient interactions and their respective peer groups. Spontaneous humor in nurse-peer interactions is reviewed and compared and contrasted with those observed in the CNS-patient interactions. A ninety-minute follow-up interview and ten hours of field note observations of the interactions of nurse-patients and nurse-peers was analyzed using an interpretative and illustrative framework following a constant comparison approach. A specific kind of humor (harsh humor) characterized the negative case and enhanced CNS-patient interactions. In nurse-peer interactions, this visceral humor was sometimes recreational; filling downtime between non-attending patients and building team rapport. However, nurse-peer humor also had a more serious import acting as a release: a way of venting emotions and diluting the daily tragedy, making palatable what is ultimately unpalatable while still retaining a sense of self-worth. Further study of humor in non-accomplishment settings may provide useful insights into the potential for humor to build staff resilience and enhance therapeutic uses of humor in healthcare interactions.