Music in a Hospital: The Impact of a Live Music Program on Pediatric Patients and Their Caregivers

Abstract

This research looks at the impact of live music on children and their caregivers in a pediatric hospital in Italy. Observations were carried out over a period of 4 weeks involving 162 children and 146 caregivers. In addition, interviews were conducted with 14 children and 22 caregivers. Subsequently, thematic analysis and content analysis were performed on 4 modes of data (observations, videos, interviews, field notes) with the support of Atlas.ti software. Results suggest that, in this context, there is evidence of the musical intervention helping the children and their families to focus their attention on something that is external to the illness. Through the familiarity of the repertoire, children’s perceptions of the hospital environment turns into something more familiar and less threatening. Consequently, the music constitutes for children and their family a psychosocial space where they can interact without the anxiety and stress elicited by diagnosis-feared perception as well as illness.