'It helps you forget your worries': A pilot study exploring music therapy in the acute hospital aged care setting

Few studies have explored music therapy (MT) in an acute aged care inpatient setting. We aimed to assess feasibility and patient/staff perceptions of an 8-week MT program on an acute geriatric ward.

An 8-week in-person MT program, comprising brief receptive musical interventions up to twice-weekly. All patients admitted to the aged care ward were eligible for inclusion. A hard copy survey was used to assess patient and staff perceptions of MT. Themes raised in free-text responses were manually coded within a thematic analysis approach. A mixed methods approach was used to obtain and analyse data relating to feasibility and patient and staff perceptions of the MT intervention.

The 8-week program ran to completion and was delivered to a median of 11 patients (IQR 9-12) each session (median 8 new/day). In total, 10 patients completed surveys, mean age 81.1 (SD 7.7); 60% were women and all had cognitive impairment. Following an MT session, eight of eight responding patients reported feeling happy and eight of eight reported they would recommend MT. Staff respondents (n = 19) reported patients appeared happy (19/19), relaxed (13/19) and all would recommend MT to other patients. Common themes were that MT was followed by improved patient behaviour and mood, and stimulated patients.

An acute aged care inpatient MT program proves feasible and well-received by staff and patients. Future research may focus on more robust data collection in larger sample sizes, specific types of MT and more in-depth exploration of the patient and carer experiences.