Here’s a challenge.  No matter if you’re an introvert, extrovert, jokester, jester, shy or timid, try putting a little extra humor into your home visits this week. It will take very little extra effort.  There are lots of different ways you can bring a smile to your homebound older patients.

• Try wearing a jester hat on April Fool’s Day.
• Tell a joke.  One of my favorite jokes is rated ‘G’.  It’s silly and gets giggles from all ages.  Here it is.  Why do girls like to go out with mushrooms?  Because they’re FUNGIS!
• My dementia patients love it when I sing to them.  How about singing a fun song in honor of the day?  “Yes, we have no bananas” or a rousing rendition of “Doggie in the Window” complete with an energetic “ARF! ARF!” after each line.
• If you’re a magician (most nurses are) bring a fun magic trick.
• Ask your patient to tell you about an April Fools Day childhood memory.  I can picture the smiles already.
• There’s always wardrobe fun!  Wear a fun shirt.  I have a smiley face shirt and some pretty crazy socks.
• There’s lots of stuff at the joke shop. Silly glasses or a plastic schnozzola could lighten someone’s day (including your own).
• There is a chance that your patients won’t even notice silly clothes or accessories.  I once dressed up like a flu bug for a Halloween flu clinic.  With a green spotted face, boinging eyeballs headpiece and plastic bugs sewed all over my lab coat, I encountered several folks who didn’t notice. (It’s hard to believe but they were so determined to get their shot.)  But the one’s that did loved it.

So you think that you have no time to waste on such nonsense?  Home care is serious business, right?  There’s not enough time to do our regular work!  What will the patient think?  What will the family think?  Maybe these thoughts are running through your head right now.  Of course you have to consider the situation and the patient before you dive into this.  You don’t want to be sporting Groucho Marx glasses when you’re visiting a patient who’s experiencing hallucinations.  The glasses would also not work with a blind patient for that matter!  Think of April Fools Day as an opportune moment in time, a chance to bring some fun to someone who hasn’t been having much lately.  You just may discover that you needed some fun too!

Debra Bertrand, CHAMP Facilitator