General Guidelines for Bedside Singing
1. The Bedside Singers must receive informed consent before singing to any patients and their families.
2. Standards for Visiting a Patient:
Confirm the patient’s or family’s acceptance of your bedside singing offer. Always give people the opportunity to decline your offer, even if they have accepted your visit on a previous day.
Sing softly and with intention. Bedside singing is more of a lullaby to cradle the listener rather than a performance.
Be mindful of how the listener seems to be responding to your singing and adjust accordingly. It’s a good idea to gently check in with the patient or family if you are unsure about whether or not something is working for them.
Let the patient know when you are leaving, unless they are asleep when it is time for you to go. In that case, we normally hum our way out of the room to avoid an abrupt transition.
3. Confidentiality Guidelines:
A. We must protect the privacy of every patient who we encounter in our work, especially by safeguarding the patient's name and any other personal information that we may have received.
B. Be sensitive to any information which ought to be shared between the Bedside Singers and nursing staff.
C. There will be times when our singers may have an opportunity to talk with the general public as part of our goal of educating people about what we do. We need to be especially mindful of patient confidentiality in this situation.
4. Regarding Belief Systems:
We are there to validate the patient's beliefs, not our own. Be aware of your own beliefs and concerns about illness and death, so that you can gently put them aside in order to focus in a non-judgmental way on what each patient needs.
If you have any questions about these guidelines,
please feel free to contact us at contact us.
