A Cure for the Soul? The Benefit of Live Music in the General Hospital H Moss 1 , E Nolan 2 , D O'Neill 3 1 Arts Office, The Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin 24 2 Independent Evaluator 3 Dept of Medical Gerontology, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, The Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin 24 Abstract From 2005 to 2006 a professional orchestra (the Irish Chamber Orchestra) performed in a university teaching hospital with the aims of bringing live music to patients who could not access traditional concert venues and of improving quality of life for patients and staff. This was the first time an orchestra was resident in a hospital in the Republic of Ireland. An independent contemporaneous evaluation was carried out to assess the benefit of live music for patients. Live music in hospital was found to enhance the quality of the aesthetic environment of the hospital, with both patients and staff stating that listening to live music helped them to relax, feel happier and more positive. Patients’ perception of the hospital was affected positively by live music in waiting areas. Music was found to have strong emotional effect and the individual preferences and experiences of patients need to be carefully taken into account when programming music in hospital. Listening to live music while in hospital has positive benefits with few negative effects. 636 xxxx Irish Medical Journal November/December 2007 Volume 100 Number 10 www.imj.ie Introduction Patients often have limited access to the arts while in healthcare settings and the quality of the aesthetic environment can be poor 1 . Hospitals are one of the few places in society where there is an absence of music 2 . Whilst there is a large body of literature on the role of music in healthcare settings, there is relatively little evidence-based research supporting the positive role of music on health gain and healing. Music in hospital can be seen to have social, emotional, therapeutic or educational benefit for patients 3 . Interventions are usually either music therapy (which is a clinical intervention using music to reach therapeutic goals) recorded music, live music performance and community music. Live music performed by professional musicians in concert format has been practised for many years in hospitals outside of Ireland, but research is limited in this area. We investigated the impact of a professional orchestra residency in a university teaching hospital, the first such initiative in Ireland. The aims of the independent evaluation were to assess the impact of live music in an acute hospital, to investigate best practice for using music in hospital, and to contribute to higher standards regarding the role of music in hospitals in the future. Methods The setting was a public voluntary teaching hospital which appointed an Arts Officer in 2003 to explore the role of the arts in health. The well-established arts programme includes a weekly music performance programme since 2003, creative writing workshops for cardiology patients, art sessions in renal dialysis and oncology, music therapy in stroke and psychiatry and interior design projects. From September 2005 – June 2006 members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) visited the hospital, performing in small groups in the Age Related Health Care Unit, Neurology ward, Psychiatry wards and the main atrium of the hospital. The performances were open to all patients, staff and visitors and were free. The orchestra gave forty recitals during the residency, each recital being thirty minutes long. The ICO is a highly distinguished national institution with an education and community outreach programme, which grows out of the orchestra's commitment to the development of music in schools and communities. The aims of ICO's residency in the hospital were to bring live classical to patients who could not access tradition concert venues, to improve quality of life for patients, to offer distraction and relaxation for patients undergoing stressful treatment and to pioneer the concept of an orchestra in residence in an acute hospital in the Republic of Ireland. An independent evaluator was engaged to carry out the evaluation of the benefit of live music in the hospital. The independent evaluation was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Three different methods were used to evaluate the benefit of live music for patients in acute hospital: 1. A detailed questionnaire was given to 93 patients, staff and visitors after the concerts. This provided both quantitative and qualitative data. 2. Three public consultation exercises were carried out in the main atrium of the hospital. 226 staff, patients and visitors at AMNCH were consulted. Participants were invited to give their comments on the music in an open-ended manner. 3. Three focus groups were held with musicians at the beginning, middle and end of the project. Results Detailed questionnaires Of the 93 questionnaires, 37 were completed by staff, 38 by patients, 14 by visitors and 4 ‘other’. The age of respondents varied from 20 to 92, with 28 staff (76%) surveyed aged 20 – 40 and 31 patients (82%) over the age of 60. The length of stay for the 38 patients surveyed ranged from 3 hours to 6 months, with a median length of 14 days. 45 (48%) of those surveyed had previous experience of listening to live music in the hospital, whilst 48 (52%) stated they were listening for the first time. Each recital was thirty minutes long. 61 (66%) were happy with this length, while 22 (24%) stated it was too short and 2 (2%) that it was too long. Respondents were asked to name their favourite music. While answers included classical, opera, jazz, rock, blues, Indie, Irish traditional, Gilbert and Sullivan, Country and Western, ballroom dancing music, chart music and ballads, the most frequently cited musical preferences were ‘Light Classical’ (26 respondents, 28%), Rock/Pop (17 respondents, 18%) and ‘Traditional Irish’ (5 respondents, 5%). When asked which music people would like to hear in hospital, the most frequently cited responses were 'light Classical’ (40 responses, 43%) a mixture of light styles (17 responses, 18%), ‘relaxing and uplifting' music (10 responses, 11%), and 'Traditional music’ (10 responses, 11%). Other responses included Jazz (5 responses, 5%) pop (5 responses,