His children commented that it was rare to see their father without a smile. He was famous for his wry sense of humor and endless supply of snappy one-liners.

When his nurse arrived with his medications that evening, the patient looked up in surprise-his usually well-coiffed nurse was wearing rabbit ears.

"I heard you requested a Playboy bunny," the nurse deadpanned. "But this was all that your insurance company would pay for."

The man chuckled for the first time in weeks.

Patty Wooten, RN, a public health nurse and a clown, is one of many health care practitioners who have discovered that laughter is indeed the best medicine. Wooten, who lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., has spent the past 18 years working as a national expert and motivational speaker in the field of therapeutic humor.

"Laughter can be a powerful therapy for both the patient and the caregiver," Wooten said. "It breaks tension and monotony and creates a human-to-human bond."

Her company, Jest for the Health of It!, is dedicated to the promotion and development of therapeutic humor. Wooten travels the country helping nurses and other health care professionals understand how to use humor to improve their working environments and client satisfaction.

"Being a nurse today, with the nursing shortage, can be very stressful," Wooten said. "I show nurses how to use humor to combat stress."

The best part is that nurses need no previous comedic experience when implementing humor in the workplace.

"You don't have to be a stand-up comic to be funny," Wooten said. "Just give yourself permission to have downtime in your job, be playful and share a comedic moment with a colleague or patient."

Wooten works with nurses to create simple comedy shrines at their worksites. Whether it's posting cartoons in the report room or humorous bumper stickers under the desk at the nursing station, there are ways to incorporate humor that don't take a lot of time or effort but can make a huge difference in morale.

One of Wooten's favorite bumper stickers reads: "I try to take things one day at a time, but lately the days have attacked me all at once."

"Imagine this bumper sticker posted at a busy nursing station," Wooten said. "Every time the nurses pass by, they can't help but smile, because we've all had those kind of days."

Wooten also teaches nurses how to effectively use humor with patients. As a critical care nurse, she has observed firsthand how humor can be used effectively in caring for patients.

"Many years ago, Norman Cousins used the positive emotions of faith, hope, laughter and joy to counteract the effects of a stressful lifestyle that he believed had led to his illness," Wooten said. "To create positive emotions and the healing atmosphere that Cousins has suggested, many hospitals have created humor rooms, comedy carts and even employ clowns to make rounds each day."

Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla., launched a therapeutic humor program in 1989, called the Comedy Connection.

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