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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
Experiences and perceptions of music therapy in critical illness
1Homerton University Hospital, London.
Aim:
To gain insight into patients' and nurses' perception of the benefits of music therapy during critical illness.
Method:
The patients received music therapy on two prescribed occasions for 30 minutes each day. Unstructured interviews were conducted with five patients and four nurses and analysed according to Burnard's framework (1991).
Results:
Patients can and do recall listening to music, even when they have been sedated and ventilated. They related to the music that they were listening to and some experienced imagery concerning the music. The nurses found it useful as an aid to wean patients off the ventilator, helping to keep them calm and focused.
Conclusion:
The study concluded that music is useful not only for relaxing patients but also in some cases 'relocating' them from the critical care area to the place where they would normally be listening to the music.
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