A Reflection on the Music Therapist's Role in Developing a Program in a Children's Hospital

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article describes a music therapy program developed at a children's hospital that facilitated university student clinical placements. In developing a new practice area within the hospital, the music therapist's role supported patients in areas of pain management and psychological stress. Consideration was given to the needs of patients and referrals as defined by staff, as well as reference to the international literature and practice. Role informants from theoretical sources are outlined, short case vignettes are presented, and the role of the music therapist in pain and stress management is indicated with reference to theoretical constructs from the field of psychology and the empirical and case material appearing in the music therapy literature. Background and Introduction Over ten years ago began working with children who were hospitalized with severe burn injury nt the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) in Brisbane, Australia. This came about because, as the sole lecturer and course co-ordinator for the music therapy programme at the University of Queensland, was seeking clinical placement opportunities for music therapy students. 1 visited a number of facilities in Brisbane offering my clinical services in exchange for opportunities to have students undertake supervised practice alongside me. One by one nursing homes, hostels, psychiatric services and centers for adults with intellectual disability had rejected my offer of free music therapy services. was left wondering what would be able to do to ensure that students could have clinical training opportunities in a State with a population of 3 million, two of whom were practicing music therapists and one of whom was me, newly arrived into a blazing sub-tropical summer from the milder, temperate South. would like to write I finally began this but as had arrived on the 5th of January 1993 and started working at the hospital in early March, there was hardly a long lead-time for the commencement of the venture. In February, thanks to suggestions and the connections of a retired music therapist in Brisbane, Moya Evans, presented at the Grand Rounds of the RCH, a major teaching and research hospital for the State, giving an overview of music therapy work with hospitalized In 1993, that consisted of a summary of the few references that could find in the university library's newly established music therapy collection: Chetta (1989), Froehlich (1984), Loveszy (1991) and Rudenburg & Royka (1989). give thanks for these colleagues and their writings as it gave my pitch to hospital practitioners and administrators the support of international scholarship and gave my early work some of its shape and direction.1 At the conclusion of the Grand Rounds, the Clinical Nurse Consultant for the burns unit, Sandy Miller, approached me, holding my arm, looking me in the eye and said, Please come and work with our children. So has continued a story, much indebted to the support of Sandy Miller, which has involved many wonderful music therapy colleagues, great professional opportunities for me and, hope and trust, moments of real joy and peace for patients and their families with whom worked. Many more patients have benefited from the music therapists whose service followed on from my early development work which at that time included the burns unit and a general surgical ward; and some but not all of those names include my published colleagues Jeanette KennelIy, Barbara Daveson, Vicky Abad, Karen Brien-Elliott, and others, who have worked in a range of other contexts within the hospital including oncology, rehabilitation and neonata units, as well as sharing and eventually taking over my clinical role in the burns and general surgical units. When started at the hospital, my prior professional experience had involved adults with mental disorders and older adults with dementia. Theoretically, was strongly influenced from psychodynamically informed music therapy; however, closer to the time that moved to Brisbane, had become interested in the literature on stress and coping. …