Abstract
American Holistic Nurses Association Education Provider Committee
Journal of Holistic Nursing Continuing Education Activity #706
Issue: September 2026
kinne space
1.75 Contact Hours
Cost
Online Price: $15
Online Non-Member Price: $30
Overview
Humor plays a multifaceted role in healthcare, providing patients with a means to navigate fear, anxiety, and vulnerability. While it fosters rapport and resilience, patient-initiated humor (PIH) can also serve as a shield, camouflaging unspoken emotional struggles. Current research focuses on clinician-initiated humor and surface-level recognition of PIH without addressing underlying emotional drivers or offering practical strategies for nurses to respond effectively. This article aims to provide actionable techniques to help nurses recognize and meaningfully engage with the emotional significance of PIH at the moment it occurs. By incorporating playful discovery—an underexplored aspect of therapeutic communication—nurses can foster deeper connections and deliver more holistic, patient-centered care.
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this activity, learners will be able to
Distinguish between how humor in healthcare provides a means for patients to navigate a healthcare journey and the vulnerabilities that accompany them, but can also serve as a shield or defense against facing or coping with the struggles experienced.
Recognize the importance of the holistic, patient-centered, therapeutic relationship and how it informs engagement in using actionable complementary techniques to assist nurses to recognize and meaningfully engage with the emotional significance of patient-initiated humor. Holistic Nursing is defined as “all nursing practice that has healing the whole person as its goal (AHNA, 1988) …. They bring a holistic, complementary and integrative focus to their work.”
Discover how playful discovery, an underexplored aspect of therapeutic communication, can foster deeper connections and deliver more holistic, patient-centered care. They will identify ways in which playful discovery will inform their holistic nursing practice as they navigate patient-initiated humor.
Acknowledgment of the American Holistic Nurses Association Education Provider Committee
A special thanks to the nurse planners of this continuing education activity who work tirelessly to ensure that continuing education opportunities exist for holistic nurses.
Continuing Nursing Education Planner Conflict of Interest Disclosures
The nurse planners have declared no relevant financial relationships related to this activity.
American Holistic Nurses Association Education Provider Committee
Journal of Holistic Nursing Continuing Education Activity #706
Issue: September 2026
QUESTIONS
True or False: According to the evidence-based literature, humor gives patients a sense of control and relief against stress and uncertainty; serves as a coping mechanism and way to communicate as they deal with fear, suffering, and strive to manage their health journey and experiences.
True
False
Playful discovery is an important concept in navigating patient-initiated humor. What applies to this concept:
Playful discovery serves as a guiding framework for exploration of the use of patient-initiated humor, emphasizing humor’s role as a relational tool that fosters connection, trust, and a deeper understanding of the patient’s holistic needs.
Playful discovery encourages a more profound understanding and engagement by sparking curiosity, allows nurses to navigate emotional dimensions of humor, recognize the needs of patients, and can promote strengthening of trust and therapeutic relationships.
Playful discovery involves the use of humor to explore emotional nuances and foster creative, nonthreatening interactions between patients and caregivers.
All of the above
True or False: The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor defines humor as: “Any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression, or appreciation of the absurdity, or incongruity of life situations.”
True
False
What are the benefits of humor?
Humor creates a sense of safety through distancing as patients navigate vulnerability.
Humor can promote maintenance of a sense of self that remains intact during the changes experienced during a challenging health journey and a sense of control as a patient.
Humor can promote decrease of stress hormones including cortisol which promotes a boost of the immune system and a decrease in stress, promote health, and release of endorphins to promote comfort and elevated mood.
Promotes a sense of shared community and social connection, increase patient satisfaction and outcomes, strengthens therapeutic alliance between patients and caregivers including trust and communication, and promotes alleviation of isolation.
All of the above.
True or False: Moments of humor can remain surface-level, leaving deeper emotional needs unaddressed… The humor relieves nurses to focus on the lighthearted exchange rather than probing deeper into the patient’s emotional needs…balancing the therapeutic aspects of humor with deeper engagement allows for equitable and empathetic care.
True
False
How can humor be a challenge?
Humor can hinder deeper engagement by obscuring emotions that might otherwise emerge in conversation.
Humor can be used to avoid confronting fear, vulnerability of grief, masking the underlying distress that, if known, could inform their care.
Can be used as a shield to protect from engagement.
All of the above.
True or False: Playful discovery uses humor as a tool for exploring for emotional exploration and creative exploration… By fostering trust, encouraging emotional expression, and supporting holistic care, playful discovery ensures that both the lighter and more vulnerable aspects of the patient experience are acknowledged.
True
False
The continuity of the nurse–patient relationship fosters picking up on subtle cues and therefore recognizing when patients are using humor as a shield. What are some strategies nurses can use for recognizing when patients are using humor as a shield?
Noticing subtle nonverbal changes
Empathetic probing
Active listening
All of the above
True or False: By using playful discovery techniques such as appreciation, empathetic probing, and reframing when patient induced humor is used, the nurse creates a caring environment that values emotional transparency, resilience, and trust.
True
False
Which of the playful discovery techniques allows the patient to reflect on the emotions tied to their humor using open-ended questions to explore underlying emotions in a supportive way to foster trust and invites patients to reflect on their humor…and allows patients to connect their humor to their emotional experiences?
Appreciation
Reframing
Empathetic probing
Motivational Interviewing