What is medical clowning?

Medical clowns are professional performing artists who have received specialized training. They enter medical and care institutions to bring clown performances, music, games, and other participatory arts to patients, healthcare workers, and family members, bringing laughter and healing through interaction. They bring laughter and psychological support to patients, creating a people-centered and friendly healthcare environment.

The service recipients of medical clowns include not only patients, but also family members and healthcare workers in high-pressure environments. Their primary methods of operation are as follows:

• Tailored and improvised interactions: They create unique interactive content through unscripted improvisation according to the patient’s age, condition, and emotional state.
• Non-pharmaceutical emotional healing: Through music, puppetry, magic, and games, they divert children’s attention from illness and treatment, allowing them to find an emotional outlet in the stressful hospital environment.
• Serving as collaborators in the hospital: They play the role of companions, helping patients regain the strength to experience happiness while also providing caregivers with space to take a breather.

• All medical clowns of the Red Nose Care Clown Association are professional performing artists trained, employed, and paid by the Association, rather than volunteers.
• They must already have professional performance training and a certain amount of work experience in this professional field, and must receive specialized training provided by the Red Nose Care Clown Association and designed for hospital settings. They must fully understand and respect this setting and design performances that are best suited to it.
• Red Nose Doctors appear to promote the physical and mental well-being of children, family members, and healthcare workers, while also respecting the work of all healthcare teams and nurses.
• They must never perform alone in a hospital and must perform together with medical clown partners.
• They must take responsibility for all their actions in the hospital and respect the dignity, individuality, and personal privacy of children and their family members.
• Red Nose Doctors’ professional capabilities must not differ based on the background, gender, nationality, religion, behavior, family background, social class, education level, or illness of the people they perform for, nor may they allow their personal emotions to affect their performances.
• All professional and private information must be kept completely confidential. Confidential information includes information that has been disclosed, as well as everything seen, read, heard, observed, or learned about children’s identities and physical conditions. Confidentiality extends to all locations: inside and outside the hospital, including elevators, lounges, and any public setting.
• Regardless of the objective circumstances, they must not establish any relationship with children or family members outside the professional scope and should maintain an appropriate distance. If family members insist repeatedly, they should discuss the matter with the healthcare supervisor.
• To ensure the quality of performances in hospitals, performing artists must possess, update, and improve their artistic performance skills (clown techniques) and theoretical foundation (child physical and mental development, basic medicine, medical terminology, pediatric pain and illness, etc.).
• Ongoing training is one of the Association’s most important commitments; each year, they must participate in the number of training hours specified by the Association.
• Each year, they have the opportunity to receive on-site observation and individual discussions with clown coaches in order to obtain tailored recommendations for improvement.
• Each year, they must submit the required number of performance feedback reports to continuously document and reflect on their work in hospital settings.
• They must put children’s safety first and must not endanger children’s safety through their performance props or actions.
• They must comply with the hospital’s internal regulations, as well as the health education guidelines and safety regulations established by the hospital and the Red Nose Care Clown Association.
• If conflicts or contradictions arise within the hospital, whether involving management, services, personnel, or any other issue, they must not intervene or take sides.
• Under no circumstances should they accept kickbacks or tips from performance recipients, participate in any promotional or advertising activities, or distribute any items or props for any profit-making purpose.