How frustrating. The article is not big enough to read. Barb Nolan was the one who insisted on having my first clown class that was posted in the Leisure Guide. When they told her that the class wouldn't run because of lack of participants, she got all her friends to register so that we had a class. We laughed later because for the first class, she came with Penaten creme all over her face to create the effect of clown white. She became a huge advocate for clowning. So here is what the article says:
Under the picture: Nolan spends most of her working hours with dying patients and their families.
Ttitle: Nurse puts on a brave face, earns smiles from the dying
By Allison Bray
Staff Reporter
BARBARA NOLAN is perkiness personified.
Her warm, friendly face breaks into an infectious smile, disarming the conference guests gathered to listen to her discussion of humour in the workplace.
It's not surprising to learn that she spends her weekends entertaining children as Twinkles the Clown.
But this is no ordinary jokester.
Nolan is a registered nurse who spends most of her time among the dying and bereaved as program co-ordinator for the province's Hospice and Palliative Care program.
Despite the grim and heart-wrenching nature of her work, Nolan is a strong believer in the power of humour for both those who are terminally ill and those working with the dying.
"Humour can make coping easier when times are tough," she told a gathering of palliative care workers at the 8th annual Provincial Hospital Palliative Care conference here yesterday.
"It can be sad, but there are also moments of joy we share with people."
Nolan, 33, said one of the important lessons she has learned in her 10 years in palliative care is no matter how much the body may be failing, life goes on until the person dies.
She borrows a quote from George Bernard Shaw to illustrate her point:
"Life doesn't cease to have funny moments when we are dying, just as life does not cease to be serious when we laugh."
But she was quick to warn that humour must be dispensed with sensitivity. "You have to respect people and where they're at. You have to match their tone."
For this reason, Nolan would never walz onto a palliative care ward with a beaming smile, or initiate jokes with a family trying to cope with a loved one's recent or imminent death. But she said a sense of humour is often appreciated by the terminally ill and their families.
"Sometimes they just want to laugh and be normal when everything around them isn't normal," she said.
"Humour in the midst of sadness can be very helpful."
As a tool, humour is also effective for people who work with the dying.
That stress can take the toll on the 60 volunteers she organizes to visit the dying and their families before and after the bereavement process.
"We take our work seriously but we should take ourselves less seriously," Nolan said. "For us as caregivers, we can use humour to keep ourselves healthy."
Nolan refers to media reports indicating a link between laughing and an increased immune response in the body as well as a surge in the release of pleasure stimulators in the brain known as endorphins.
She added that an average adult laughs 15 times a day, compared with an average child, who laughs between 300 and 400 times a day.
How frustrating. The article is not big enough to read. Barb Nolan was the one who insisted on having my first clown class that was posted in the Leisure Guide. When they told her that the class wouldn't run because of lack of participants, she got all her friends to register so that we had a class. We laughed later because for the first class, she came with Penaten creme all over her face to create the effect of clown white. She became a huge advocate for clowning. So here is what the article says:
Under the picture: Nolan spends most of her working hours with dying patients and their families.
Ttitle: Nurse puts on a brave face, earns smiles from the dying
By Allison Bray
Staff Reporter
BARBARA NOLAN is perkiness personified.
Her warm, friendly face breaks into an infectious smile, disarming the conference guests gathered to listen to her discussion of humour in the workplace.
It's not surprising to learn that she spends her weekends entertaining children as Twinkles the Clown.
But this is no ordinary jokester.
Nolan is a registered nurse who spends most of her time among the dying and bereaved as program co-ordinator for the province's Hospice and Palliative Care program.
Despite the grim and heart-wrenching nature of her work, Nolan is a strong believer in the power of humour for both those who are terminally ill and those working with the dying.
"Humour can make coping easier when times are tough," she told a gathering of palliative care workers at the 8th annual Provincial Hospital Palliative Care conference here yesterday.
"It can be sad, but there are also moments of joy we share with people."
Nolan, 33, said one of the important lessons she has learned in her 10 years in palliative care is no matter how much the body may be failing, life goes on until the person dies.
She borrows a quote from George Bernard Shaw to illustrate her point:
"Life doesn't cease to have funny moments when we are dying, just as life does not cease to be serious when we laugh."
But she was quick to warn that humour must be dispensed with sensitivity. "You have to respect people and where they're at. You have to match their tone."
For this reason, Nolan would never walz onto a palliative care ward with a beaming smile, or initiate jokes with a family trying to cope with a loved one's recent or imminent death. But she said a sense of humour is often appreciated by the terminally ill and their families.
"Sometimes they just want to laugh and be normal when everything around them isn't normal," she said.
"Humour in the midst of sadness can be very helpful."
As a tool, humour is also effective for people who work with the dying.
That stress can take the toll on the 60 volunteers she organizes to visit the dying and their families before and after the bereavement process.
"We take our work seriously but we should take ourselves less seriously," Nolan said. "For us as caregivers, we can use humour to keep ourselves healthy."
Nolan refers to media reports indicating a link between laughing and an increased immune response in the body as well as a surge in the release of pleasure stimulators in the brain known as endorphins.
She added that an average adult laughs 15 times a day, compared with an average child, who laughs between 300 and 400 times a day.