Music in child care

Music has been used therapeutically for many centuries, and numerous studies have researched the curative and preventative powers of music in several diseases. Music, as a therapy was shown to have positive effects in child care, such as in premature infants, children in emergency care, children receiving surgery, children in oncology departments and handicapped children. The aim of this review was to study the therapeutic effects of music in child care at hospital. The method οf this study included bibliography research from both the review and the research internatio nal literature, which was referred to the therapeutic effects of music in Children's Hospital. Results: Most studies focus on the beneficial effects of music to child. The results of the study showed that music is widely used to enhance well‐being and appears to exert direct effects to child, which are mainly related to physiology and psychology, including changes in the vital signs, reductions in anxiety and pain, distraction of attention from unpleasant sensations and better communication with the environment at hospital. Furthermore, music exerts indirect effects to child since is able to cause positive modifications in nurses' behaviour and conduces to better performance in their duties. Conclusions: Music consists a low-cost "therapeutic instrument" for nurses to apply to child-patient and is found to be effective in producing positive outcomes. The nurses' knowledge of music therapy need to be improved and the therapeutic impact of music must be a result from systematic professional application.

Keywords: Music therapy‐ effective intervention –child care