Hi, everyone!
Yes, it's been busy, but I guess that's not such a bad thing. Anyway, as far as stories go, this morning while passing morning medications I came to a child who has just recently been admitted to our facility and was depressed and agitated and had 30 minutes earlier made a suicide attempt (more of a gesture, or attention-seeking behavior, nonetheless concerning). Staff thought I would have trouble administering her medication, however, after doing my chop-cup routine and card to cell phone, she took her meds, let me treat some wounds on her arm, and let me teach her 2 simple tricks. In the long run, I don't how therapeutic the magic will be, but for the moment, she was amazed and absorbed in something mysterious and challenging and safe. I use magic everyday, and get as much or more out it than my clients.

--Steve Bosque

I'm not in the profession, but reading these posts has been inspiring! Thanks.

Hi again medical magic threaders...been missing the green room a lot lately. I will be going to Boston this week for a conference of the American College of Emergency Physicians. I may try to share some medical magic ideas if I have the fortune of meeting Doctors who have an inkling for magic appreciation. We'll see.

check out my pal Shel the escape artist on my You tube channel: MetroplexMagic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS1ueBY59ZM

he may also be seen in the upcoming release by Mario Morris on the Busking school DVDs soon to be released. It has been a real priviledge and honor to work with such a dedicated street performer as my friend SHel. Magic has been a great outdoor adventure for me, as we 've been takin it to the streets when not in the hospital. I hope we have an even greater season in 2010.

Oh if you all are twittering, you can follow my tweets I'm: MagicNurseRob

Awesome stuff Rob! I am also a firefighter/paramedic who performs magic on occasions to help patients keep their minds off certain things. It is a great distraction for patients

NurseRob,
Just happened to see this post after making one earlier today about performing at my local hospital. What an impressive array of repsonses and ideas. Thank you for the original posting that has spured all of this discussion. I know from personal experience that my heart is filled with joy, compassion and love whenever I perfrom at the hospital or nursing home. I've often driven home with tears brimming in my eyes. May God bless you and all those who perform and bring smiles to the faces for those in need.

Came up with another spontaneous bit of medical magic today. I was treating a child with urticaria and wanted to demonstrate dermatographism to the mom. I traced an Ace with a diamond next to it using reflex hammer handle. Then forced the card on mom and the prediction slowly revealed itself on her daughter's arm. It was a fun way to teach this sign!

Hi everyone! I just found this thread and hope to revitalize it a little bit. My name is Jay and I have been a Registered Nurse for 13 years, and a magician for 9 years. I have been combining the two for those 9 years as well.

I work in an acute physical rehabilitation hospital, and interact with people who have Spinal Cord Injury, Brain Injury, Stroke, Amputation, & joint replacements. My specialty is Spinal Cord Injury, although for the past few years I have been an administrator in the hospital and no longer have direct patient care responsibilities. The good news is that switching from scrubs to a suit and tie means more pockets

I attended Jeff McBride's very first "Magic for the Medical Professional" conference in 2005, and he still refers to me as "New Jersey's best Nurse Magician." I am quite certain that I am the only nurse magician he knows from NJ, but I'll take it!

Thank you all for sharing your stories on this thread, and others. I am inspired by your words and I also love the feeling that magic creates between me and my patients, their families, my staff, and anyone else who happens to be around.

Keep up the great work, and I hope that we can continue to add to this thread with tips, effects, and words of encouragement for our colleagues who, for whatever reason, have not begun their medical/magical journey but want to.

Jay

Hmm, not sure if I count... but I hope to enter medical school one day. I am a Mentalist.

Mr. Houdini666 - That may be a plus - you'll find that most medical complaints in a primary care office are psych issues (whether obvious or not)!

I was reminded the other day that this thread has often focuses on performing for patients. However, the other day while rounding I did several impromptu close-up shows for the floor staff in the "units". The nurses, respiratory techs, etc all work hard in a stressful environment. It's a good feeling knowing that I could get them to laugh so hard and amaze them at the same time. Good stress reliever for them! I strongly recommend getting these hardworking staffs involved with your magic as well.

Has anyone read the Jay Ungar Book Bringing Magic to Life? If so, how useful was it?

Wonderful finding this thread on The Magic Café!

Yesterday I spoke at the McBride Mystery School before his class "Magic for Medical Professionals" and one of the MD's told me about this thread!

:-)

I have a new series of lectures for medical professionals where I combine my background as an Anthropologist and culture expert with the life lessons that I have learned as a professional Vegas Magician/mentalist.

We talk about Communication, Motivation and Change through interactive games and learning simple Magic tricks.

This is a relatively new program for me called "Helping Hospitals Heal" and I would love your thoughts on it. So far I have spent a few weeks with Martin Memorial Health Systems in Florida, IHC in Salt Lake City, VHA SE in Alabama and will soon be working with some campuses in Chicago and Montana.

The book will be coming out this year

Thank you for your thoughts and time!

Paul Draper
http://www.helpinghospitalsheal.com

I've spent the evening reading through the posts in this thread. It is inspiring to see so many people share their time, energy, and talents with others.

Years ago when we first started HEALING OF MAGIC - with the support and encouragement of Project Magic, David Copperfield, and Julie DeJean - a reporter wrote a great line that has become our "moto":

"Magic wands don't always belong with black hats and rabbits. Sometimes they belong in hospitals where frail hands learn tricks and the magic - the real magic - is in the healing."

This fall I have had the great privilege of conducting several Continuing Education Workshops for therapists and physicians as we toured with our show. This aspect of my work is one of the most significant and meaningful things that I do. I can tell from the posts on these pages that those who have participated in similar projects know that what we experience has such an impact in our own lives.

My exposure to therapists and patients in hospitals led me to work children with Sensory Integration Disorders, EBD, those on the autism spectrum, and dozens of other challenges. I became so intrigued with these kids that I have spent the last 2 years researching and writing a new program called HOCUS FOCUS. It is currently in the hands of about 35 researchers in several countries.

It has been an exciting, frustrating, challenging, and totally encompassing experience. I've learned so much I'm not sure I can put it all into words. But I'm hopeful that the program will help a lot of children.

In the coming weeks, I'll be heading to Hong Kong to speak at the East Asian International Conference on Teacher Education Research. And next summer, I'll be addressing the participants of the International Conference on Special Education in Namibia, Africa. I'm humbled by the opportunities and enthusiastic about the possibilities.

All I can say to everyone is Keep Up The Great Work! It is an incredible thing that you are all doing!

Kevin
http://www.SpencersMagic.com
http://www.MagicTherapy.com

Jay's book is very good. Lots of good content and I like his writing style. I'd recommend it and Scot Tokar/Harrison Carroll's Side Fx.

Hi Again magic friends! Its been a long time away from the forum for me, but I am back for a quick update. I am not working full time in the hospital any longer, and am now a Clinical Director for a medical software company specializing in emergency medicine. This career fell into my lap unexpectedly through some side consulting I was doing, and the deal was too good to pass up. There was a major downside to leaving the hospital though, which I struggled with for a long time: I was no longer caring for patients, and doing what I loved. Magic took a back seat, and was demoted to hobby status, and not a very active one at that. My new career has enhanced my life greatly, no question, but my motivation for doing magic was gone as a result.

Until recently, when through some old contacts, I was asked to be a camp nurse at a special weekend camp for medically challenged kids. GAME ON for The Magic Nurse!! After a year of no magic, I dusted off the best of what I knew and jumped right back in. This led to an additional opportunity to perform and teach a magic class at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, where I will be returning as often as I like to demonstrate therapeutic magic effects geared at empowering kids with mobliity impairments, to learn and perfom magic. My first class was this week, and it could not have gone better. Though I still miss the trenches of patient care, I now have a reason to wake up and practice my double lift again.

I want to thank my dearest friends Christopher Lyle and Shel Higgens for their continuing support and magical mentoring, even through the dry spells. Good magic friends are awesome to have!

Today I'm helping physicians train on our software in the ER of a Tuscon hospital. I will of course be interspersing my techno speak with some useful magic effects for those who are receptive. My favorite effect for use with physicians is what I call the "universal multi cultural Wong-Baker pediatric pain scale detection meter" Which uses the smiley faces hot rod paddle which I give them afterwards. It is a great opener to begin a meaningful dialogue in the use of magic in the clinical practice setting. It's going to be fun playing in an ER again for the week.

Where have all the magical medical professionals gone? I blame ObamaCare!

I'm hoping to add some stories for this thread in the future; for now I wanted to say Thank You and congratulation to all of you compassionate people. You inspire me.

I'm a medical student, and I became really interested in doing magic during my pediatrics rotation (which I am still doing). Even though I hate pediatrics with a serious passion, I still like bringing a smile to the faces of my patients. It is not only a stress reliever for them, but it is also a serious relaxer for me. So, I'm working on a variety of the card found in an orange trick, and I'll present it to all my colleagues on call in the next week.

I've thought about going to the medical school anatomy lab to do a very disturbing version of a found card trick....like....card magically found in a brain.....and putting that on youtube. But ultimately I decided against that because it has the potential to create controversy, and I don't want any of that :-/. Even though it would be pretty awesome to load a card into a brain!

Francisco,

I can't recall the name of the fellow who did it, but I recall seeing an amazing video demonstrating the power of robotic surgery. He had someone pick a card, then surgically peeled the grape on camera with the robot, revealing a very tiny card hidden underneath. Absolutely astonishing! Maybe you can try something like that, still amazing but a lot less graphic than what you suggested?