Smiley's People
To the Editor.—Hospitals are stressful places, not only for patients and families, but for staff as well. There are many methods of stress reduction available to the health care professional, but few are readily accessible. We suggest the use of a simple but poorly studied method of decreasing stres...
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| Published in: | JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 262; no. 18; p. 2541 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
United States
American Medical Association
10-11-1989
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | To the Editor.—Hospitals are stressful places, not only for patients and families, but for staff as well. There are many methods of stress reduction available to the health care professional, but few are readily accessible. We suggest the use of a simple but poorly studied method of decreasing stress, the smile. Smiling is an unsophisticated yet effective means of social contact. Selye1 noted that a lack of socialization plays a role in perpetuating the "stress response." Increased smiling between health care professionals could, therefore, play a role in decreasing stress. The following study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of a smile in eliciting a smiling response.A multicenter trial using a prospective, randomized design was undertaken to test the following hypothesis: medical personnel who are smiled at will smile more than those who are not smiled at, or, in medical terms, a smile is contagious. Three hundred |
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| Bibliography: | SourceType-Other Sources-1 ObjectType-Article-2 content type line 63 ObjectType-Feature-1 ObjectType-Correspondence-3 |
| ISSN: | 0098-7484 1538-3598 |
| DOI: | 10.1001/jama.1989.03430180079027 |