I have discovered lots of cool things about living in Israel. While people here are notorious for being rude, small shop owners have sold me stuff on credit (“Just pay me next time you come in”), or even loaned me their own personal knitting needles for a project. I have never once been catcalled by a construction worker here. (In the US, I don’t think I passed a single construction site without someone rating my appearance.) And I just discovered that clowns, which I never found funny, but always thought bizarre and pitiful looking, have been transformed into valuable members of medical teams in hospitals. Check out this video:
The US has also worked at integrating specially trained clowns into its medical programs. I’m impressed by what this video shows: how the clowns interact with patients from newborns to tweens, their level of training, and their acceptance–nay, the demand for them–by hospital staff. For the medical field to take the leap to seeing medical treatment through a very young patient’s eyes, and to work to make the experience of hospitalization and treatment more comfortable for that population, is commendable.
I often despair that life is not a progression from barbarism toward greater civilization. And then I see videos like this, and hope is restored.
Shimshonit 
Great post. I want to use it in my pro-Israel roundup on March 1st.
They also have clowns in French hospitals, and they’re not all physicians!
Westbankmama: Thanks for the compliment. Feel free.
Ilana-Davita: I don’t think these clowns are physicians either–the “Dream Doctors” title is deceiving. They are highly trained and have some medical knowledge, but I think they work as part of a team with doctors and nurses, rather than being doctors themselves. (What a confusing message that would send to a child, having a clown examining you for real!)
The ‘Dream Doctors’ title is something quite cheesy and not accurate. And the term “Medical Clowning” sounds like a joke in itself.
However, I think this is a great idea! Assuming the clown is doing his job well, they can really make a difference.
On the other hand, aren’t there a lot of kids with clown-phobia..?
Ann-Mi: I notice from the video that the clowns are not covered in the Ronald McDonald pancake makeup that so many entertainment clowns are, and their clothes are plainer or, in many cases, hospital scrubs. The nose is the main thing to distinguish them, and in one of the shots in the video, a clown was holding a kid who was pulling off his red nose. I think the fact that the clowns look more like real people and engage in therapeutic physical contact with the kids makes a difference.
[…] today is Shushan Purim, this post by Shimshonit is very appropriate. Read about “dream doctors” medical clowns that are revolutionizing treatment in Israeli […]
It’s a profession, generally for those who have other jobs. Laughing, even smiling, is good for one’s health. Great medicine.