Samenvatting

Meaningful Music in Health Care (MiMiC) is a bottom-up exploratory research project with the goal of developing a contextually well-informed artistic participatory music practice for professional musicians seeking to work in hospitals. The joint research brings together qualitative researchers, musicians and surgical professionals working with vulnerable elderly patients. The qualitative aim is to find out what live music can bring about in the hospital, and the medical focus is on how interactive music sessions can enhance the well-being of older patients.Through the privacy that can be nurtured at patients’ bedsides and the institutional machinery of the hospital work floor, the musicians learn about their interactions with their audiences. Their authentic artistic signatures are fostered by the reciprocal encounters. The person-centred music-making approaches of the MiMiC-practice evoke small social changes, such as the patients’ sense of autonomy, the release of emotion, and increase of social interaction, which support the nurses’ patient-centred care delivery