Derbyshire Children’s Hospital

First thing in the morning, and Rich and I found ourselves starting our musical day as a duo this week – five string fiddle, voices, bodhran and ukelele. We began by playing in the open waiting room area of Sunflower Ward, where there were some staff and parents and grand parents conversing in sign. We played for a while, assessing the potential for moving into one of the pre/post op wards next door. After that piece we moved into one of these wards to play for two families waiting with young people in bed – there was much tapping of toes and nodding in approval of our music. Just when we thought we would end our Sunshine song and move on, a younger child returned from a procedure upset and crying, changing the mood on the ward completely. Rich and I matched the volume of the child and continued playing – the child connected with our music within 30 seconds and began to calm – there was good eye contact and visible relaxation of the patient and we then brought the volume and pace of our music down to take the mood to an even more relaxed state. Eyes began to close and parent and grandparents thanked us for being there – quite a special few moments!

Some recent feedback and comments from our residency at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital.

First a card sent to the hospital by parents…

‘Thank you so much for the fantastic care and support you gave us whilst —— was on the ward. She had some lovely moments with the doctors, nurses and musicians! We cannot thank you enough.’

Lovely to be seen as part of the ‘team’ alongside the doctors and nurses.

More feedback from a parent this week…

‘Absolutely fantastic! Cheered our daughter up no end – better than medicine! Thankyou very much – keep up the good work! :-)’

We certainly will.

Derbyshire Children’s Hospital – 15 June 2012. When we’re working as musicians in the hospital, eye contact is critical to us, not only between ourselves as musicians, but also with patients, visitors and staff. A glance from a patient can invite us into their space, give us an indication of their comfort with our presence and give us a clue as to ‘how we are doing’. We often find ourselves using sympathetic eyes – matching a patient’s contact with our own, and negotiating a closer collaboration through eye ‘communication’. Sometimes we can encourage participation or simply smile with our eyes. So much is communicated in this way, and we often reflect upon how our training and experience allows us to use eye contact as a valuable tool in our practice.

Yesterday at the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital we were confronted by the best eye ‘communicator’ we have perhaps ever encountered in the form of a very young baby – only a few weeks old. He had just woken up, and nursing staff had come to find us to ask us to play for him. He was brought out of his room by his parents, carried by his father to meet the three of us (Sarah, Richard and myself). He was at first somewhat agitated, however as we began to play, the three of us lined up playing over each other’s shoulders so as not to crowd the scene, the baby fixed his gaze, as so often happens, upon Sarah’s viola. He became suddenly very calm and purposeful with his wide-eyed gaze, and the whole environment became very calm as doctors and nursing staff looked on. After a minute or so, the baby purposefully moved his gaze to Richard’s bodhran, insisting that Richard come closer to play. Again, after a short time I was also ‘invited in’ by the baby as his stare moved first to my right hand on the guitar, and then to my left hand. Throughout this time baby, mother, father and the medical team were all very calm and peaceful as we all enjoyed the musical moment together. Finally, the baby moved his gaze upwards towards his father’s eyes, as clear a sign as ever that it was time for us to go, and that it was time for the baby to be with his father. We moved slowly away, leaving a peaceful scene behind with an incredibly connected father and baby.

Music had brought people together in a unique way within this scene, and had allowed the baby an opportunity to orchestrate his own environment which was respected and followed by everyone. All through the eyes………

On the 1st of June we were very pleased to be invited down to do some playing in the waiting areas of Children’s Accident and Emergency department. We spent about 45 minutes there in the afternoon and had some good musical interactions with the children who were waiting there. When we were reflecting on how the day had gone we all agreed that the space had a very different feel to the other wards. Unsurprisingly so, as the children who were there had almost certainly not got up that morning expecting to spend any time in hospital that day! Anxiety levels were higher among the children and they were more reticent about engaging with musicians. There was a lot more ‘playing for’ than ‘playing with’ in that space but the music did seem appreciated. We had some nice comments from parents and a number of people thanked us as we left the spaces. We now know that children’s A&E has a different pace to other wards and the patients who are there are in a very different state of mind to many of the other patients that we work with. This area has opened up another exciting and interesting challenge for us as musicians working in hospital.