Report on the development and impact of Wits University's collaborative "Music in Hospitals" project

What is it about?

The article describes a collaboration between Wits University Community Music and Donald Gordon Medical Centre - a private hospital in Johannesburg. It focuses on the introduction of live music into a hospital, as a form of "service learning" for music students, integrated into a Community Music programme. After an overview of this type of work, through a literature review that addresses some of the confusion between live music performance in clinical spaces, and music therapy, the article goes on to describe the project and its impact. Using mixed methods research methods, the findings suggest that live music-making and musical participation in a hospital elicits unexpected results on the level of positively affecting patient, carer and nurses' experiences. The students involved in the project reflected that their musical performances helped to "humanise the hospital spaces". The article advocates for further research and practice in the domain of "music in health", particularly in South Africa, and the values of the work for aspiring community musicians, performers and health practitioners.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The project is unique as a collaboration between clinical and music researchers in South Africa and significant because the project is formally integrated into Wits University's Community Music Programme and likely to be the first of its kind in this country.