Humour and dialysis.

Abstract

There are many articles on the connection between the spirit and the body and the influence of a good mood on the way people deal with physical problems. This paper will demonstrate that the use of humour is a way of influencing our patients' spirit in order to help them deal with problems relating to their illness. In our every day experience with renal patients, we have noticed that humour helps us reduce patients' anxiety, before the first dialysis, before using the dialysis needles, or before performing painful procedures. Humour also helps us to offset the anger patients often express during treatment. Humour brings about a better atmosphere and the possibility of creating positive communication with the patients in a more relaxed environment and in a much more effective way. Our findings are similar to those in the literature and conclude that humour is an aid for dealing with patients' problems.