Humor in rehabilitation professions: a scoping review

Abstract

Purpose Studying humor in the rehabilitation professions is important given its positive effects on health and well-being. We conducted a scoping review to understand how the use of humor has been explored in the existing literature in four rehabilitation professions. The rehabilitation professions included audiology, speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. Materials and methods The five-stage method identified by Arksey and O’Malley was used to conduct this review. Six databases were searched. We included 57 articles in our final review, summarized in a narrative synthesis. Results We generated seven themes in our analysis: (1) humour as a management strategy in therapy; (2) humour as a power establisher vs. equalizer; (3) humour as a coping mechanism in rehabilitation; (4) conceptualizations of non-verbal humor cues in therapy; (5) Is humour trainable? (6) Humor used to foster group cohesion; and (7) Attitudes and beliefs surrounding humor practice. Conclusions Our findings emphasize the importance of using humor in the rehabilitation professions, and the ways in which humor is conceptualized in a multitude of ways for both clinician and client. Future work is needed to further understand the presence and use of humor in rehabilitation professions. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION In a scoping review of the literature, this study showed that humor was used mainly positively in rehabilitation by the included professions of audiology, speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy and contributed to a sense of belonging. Humor may be an effective way to improve management of client/clinician relations as well as improving group cohesion in rehabilitation settings. In the rehabilitation professions of audiology, speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy, non-verbal humor cues were used in instances where communication was difficult or impaired for clients.