Integrating models of music into acute hospitals: An Irish perspective

This chapter explores the role of music in a large acute, academic teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland. The chapter presents a number of methods of using music, such as live performance, music therapy, musician in residence schemes, and using pre-recorded music as part of hospital design. A discussion of the most appropriate use of any one model of music in a hospital setting then follows. Music can be used in many different ways within the acute hospital, and these different methods are presented as a resource from which to select the best intervention to assist a patient or group of patients. Four key features which are essential to selecting the right music for any patient group will be presented and explored: 1) assessing patient need, 2) evaluating the benefit of the intervention, 3) insisting on professional training and excellence and 4) always viewing the use of music in a hospital setting as a therapeutic tool.