Music in Medicine

by Sidney Licht

Music Aide

There is considerable disagreement concerning the title most desirable for the person conducting music in the hospital. The term “musical therapist” implies a training not only in music but in treatment. The occupational therapist has had a training not only in crafts, but in basic medical subjects, psychology, and some clinical subjects. Until musicians can take similar courses at accredited schools a different title seems wiser. At some hospitals the workers are called recreational aides, but such people also conduct other recreational activities. It seems picayune to argue over terminology, but the hospital music worker must be called something and it is hard to conceive that anyone would find fault with the appellation “music aide” for those people who bring music to the patient.

A music aide may be of either sex and of any age. The choice will depend not only upon what is available locally but on such considerations as the personalities involved and personal recommendations. If intelligence is not exercised, the program will fail because the senior music aide is the keystone of the entire structure. For a children’s hospital, a woman who has raised children would seem most suitable. The aide for children should be able to sing and play the piano. She should also be able to play musical games with children.

For a hospital of young adults, such as the average hospital for the tuberculous, a young woman between thirty and forty will have the energy, drive and spirit to match the requirements and contemporary tastes of the patients under her care. The aide for this type of work should also be able to lead group and mass singing and be able to play an instrument. Ability to play a second instrument, or to teach it is a valuable asset.

For the mental hospital an aide should be mature, patient, well informed and have the urge, but not the preformed opinions, for handling the mental patient. For the hospital treating the aged or other chronic patients, an older man or woman is desirable.

It is preferable for any aide to have had some formal musical instruction. Most desirable is a graduate of a musical conservatory or of a college which offers a major in music. The music aide should play at least one instrument, and preferably the piano. If the hospital budget permits additional music aides each successive one should know another instrument. The aide should be able to play music at sight and sing with an acceptable voice. The chief qualification should be the absence of “artistic temperament.” Patients are admitted to a hospital for medical care, not musical knowledge. The aide should not consider them as music students. Music should be given to them with patience and without undue emotion. If music evokes a marked mental response it may be beneficial, but it should be the music and not the musician which elicits such reactions. Previous experience in teaching music is a valuable asset to the music aide.

The duties of the music aide will vary with the number and type of patients. In hospitals with a large number of ambulatory patients emphasis will be placed on group activities; in hospitals where children predominate music will be used largely as diversion, in games, dancing and other bodily activities called “rhythms” which is a development of Eurhythmics.

Under the supervision of the medical director, the music aide should outline a definite schedule of musical activities and adhere to it. This will require much preparation and the best hours for preparatory work will be those during which patients are resting, sleeping, or receiving active medical and nursing care. The preparation will include maintenance and cataloguing of instruments and the medical library; tabulation of patient requests for instruction, books and recordings; programming for concerts, ward songs and the public address system; correspondence with musicians and musical groups in the community; ordering of equipment and music; and scheduling.

The schedule should be patterned to fit into the hospital routine. The first hour of the day should be reserved for preparatory activities. Individual instruction in music may be given from nine until ten. At ten the music cart may be taken to the wards until mealtime. Following the meal hour, the aide can prepare for the afternoon ward visits. Recreation Hall activities or the listening room may be scheduled for the period of two to three. Three to four-thirty may be used for ward entertainment, either with the music cart or with portable instruments. On one or two nights a weeks, an hour or more may be set aside for the hospital concert or a music appreciation hour.