【Medical Companionship】How do medical clowns accompany children bravely into a medical “storm”?

“Being present as a clown is like bravely walking into a storm together with the children.”── Dr. Red Nose Taiwan medical clown performer Chang Yun-Chin

At a lecture held during the World Medical Clown Congress in Switzerland, Dr. Red Nose’s active medical clown performers Fang I-Hsuan and Chang Yun-Chin shared Taiwan’s unique practical experience in “medical companionship” with experts from around the world.

In the serious, cold hospital corridors filled with the smell of disinfectant, when a child must face invasive treatments such as blood draws, needles, or even an extremely painful lumbar puncture, fear often strikes like a storm. In these highly stressful medical procedures, can medical clowns, who are skilled in humor and performance, reallymake a difference？

To be frank, promoting medical clowns in Taiwan is not easy. Taiwanese society places great importance on emotional restraint, hierarchy, and dignity. Many healthcare professionals, including ourselves at the beginning, worried: Would bringing playfulness or humor into a serious pediatric clinical environment undermine the professionalism and gravity of medical care?

But Dr. Red Nose has proven through action that the involvement of medical clowns is not merely entertainment, but can alsosupport medical care. When clowns successfully divert children’s attention and build trust through improvisational games, they can significantly reduce children’s anxiety and perception of pain, thereby increasing their cooperation during invasive treatments and reducing the use of physical restraints or sedatives.

In Taiwan today, in addition to regular ward visits, Dr. Red Nose has further developedameticulous and systematicmedical companionship process :

• Morning: They first visit pediatric and oncology wards to accompany the children, providing plenty of emotional support before they prepare to undergo treatment, such as a lumbar puncture.

• Afternoon: They work closely with specialist nurses to accompany critically ill patients undergoing high-risk invasive treatments throughout the entire process. Sometimes they also visit outpatient clinics to accompany children receiving peritoneal dialysis or having blood drawn.

As an aside: In Taiwan, Dr. Red Nose’s performance services always consist of “two-person” teams. This applies both to ward rounds and medical companionship, because the two performers play off each other and provide mutual support, allowing them tostay alert to changes in theon-site situationand respond敏銳反應

We are not there to cause disruption; we are professional teammates who fully cooperate with healthcare providers’ needs and help treatments proceed more smoothly. We stand shoulder to shoulder, combining gentle art with professional medical care to create more humane support and compassion.