J Korean Acad Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs JKAPMHN Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 1225-8482 2288-4653 The Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 10.12934/jkpmhn.2015.24.2.93 Original Article A Content Analysis of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses' Experience of Using Humor Seo Ji-Min 1 Na Hyunjoo 2 College of Nursing, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea. Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Busan, Korea. Corresponding author: Seo, Ji-Min. College of Nursing, Pusan National University, 49 Busandeahak-ro, Mulgeum-eup, Yangsan 626-770, Korea. Tel: +82-51-510-8351, Fax: +82-51-510-8308, seojimin@pusan.ac.kr 06 2015 30 06 2015 24 2 93 106 23 04 2015 16 06 2015 22 06 2015 © 2015 The Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2015 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose

The study was conducted to explore experience of using humor among psychiatric-mental health nurses.

 Methods

Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to collect data from 30 nurses working in community mental health centers or psychiatric wards. Data were categorized and coded using content analysis.

 Results

The findings confirm that 11 categories, 43 sub-categories, and 104 statements were drawn from 4 domains. The four domains included effectiveness of humor, effective use of humor, ineffective use of humor, and barriers and promotive strategies to the use of humor. Nurses experienced positive and negative effects of humor. Popular fad words, jokes, imitation, and compliments were identified as effective types of humor. Discounting humor and belittling humor were identified as ineffective types of humor. Effective humor was humor that was used after establishing a trust relationship and when the patient's mental status was stable. Barriers to using humor were heavy workload, nurses' careful character, and nurses' concern about patients' responses.

 Conclusion

Nurses should assess the nurse-patient relationship and patients' mental status when they plan to use humor. In addition, hiring more nurses and providing education about humor are suggested to improve sense of humor and recognize the effectiveness of humor.

 Humor Psychiatric nursing Mental health Pusan National University

This work was supported by the Financial Supporting Project of Long-term Overseas Dispatch of PNU's Tenure-track Faculty, 2013.

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*Multiple responses.

 Experience of Effective Use of Humor

*Multiple responses.

 Experience of Ineffective Use of Humor

*Multiple responses.

 Barriers and Promotive Strategies to Use of Humor

*Multiple responses.