Chapter I
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Although pain is a universal experience, its exact nature remains a mystery. It is known that pain is highly subjective and individual and that it is one of the body’s defense mechanisms that indicate a problem. Unrelieved pain presents both physiologic and psychologic dangers to health and recovery. McCaffery 1999, defines pain as “whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he (or she) says it does.” Basic to this definition is the care provider’s willingness to believe that the client is experiencing pain and that the client is the real authority on that pain.

Health care professionals recently have focused on the positive effects of humor and laughter on health and disease. Humor involves the ability to discover, express, or appreciate the comical or absurdly incongruous, to be amused by one’s own imperfections or the whimsical aspects of life, and to see the funny side of an otherwise serious situation. Humor in nursing is defined as helping the client “to perceive, appreciate, and express what is funny, amusing, or ludicrous in order to establish relationships, relieve tension, release anger, facilitate learning, or cope with a painful feeling” (McCloskey 2000).

Many health care settings are now interested in providing humor as a caring skill and have recognized that “laughter is the best medicine.” “Humor rooms” are being created for clients and staff that are supplied with games, funny audiotapes and videotapes, humorous books, collections of cartoons, and so on.

This study utilizes experimental type of research. This led the researchers to conduct a study to know the effects of humor therapy to patients after undergoing an invasive procedure. We would also want to identify therapeutic benefits of humor therapy to further improve patient care