Editorial
B ! i
Hospital tours for well children help them to cope “When I get a sore throat, I am going to come to this hospital.” This was the verdict of one preschooler after a tour of the University of Colorado Medical Center (UCMC). The center conducts tours for well children to introduce them to the hospital and the people who work there. In New Jersey, the Rahway Hospital holds a pediatric open house two Sundays a month for well children who come with their parents or with groups. Children scheduled for surgery are also invited to the open house.’ Other hospitals offer similar programs. Tours for well children are an innovative way of bringing the hospital and community together and helping children and parents cope with hospitalization. At Rahway Hospital, pediatric nurses believe they “can see a difference” in children scheduled for surgery who have been on the tour. They are more cooperative and less anxious. At UCMC, preschool children come to the hospital with their classes. Betty Frain, children’s activity coordinator (inpatient), explains that this age group was selected because “preschool children have the most difficulty understanding hospitalization. They don’t have the ability to reason, but they have television and, as a result, many misconceptions.“ She said that one boy scheduled for surgery expected to be bionic.
“I tried to explain to him,” she said, “that we don’t do bionics. He was most disappointed.” Betty points out that a large percentage of children have contact with hospitals, either as patients or having a member of their family hospitalized. Having an opportunity to visit a hospital can also make it easier to understand a classmate’s hospital experience. We recently joined a group of 12 preschoolers for a tour of the University of Colorado Medical Center. Once all the shoelaces were tied, our leader Doris Klein, who is children’s activity coordinator (outpatient), took us to the outpatient department, the part of the hospital probably most familiar to the children. She talks about routine examinations the children may experience on an outpatient visit or a visit to their doctor’s office. The children embellish her talk with their own experiences. She shows them the stethe scope and the blood pressure cuff, the ophthalmoscope, and percussion hammer. Showing them a tongue depressor, she talks about throat cultures, which leads to a discussion of what children dislike most-shots. “Do shots hurt?” There is a chorus of yeses. “Yes, they do,” she agrees, explaining why shots are necessary. For the second part of the tour to the pediatric unit we joined Betty Frain and a young girl who is a patient in the unit. Visiting a hospital room, the children get an idea of what being in the hospital is like. They see how the bed goes up and down and how the railings protect them from falling. “I emphasize that one of the reasons
AORN Journal, July 1977, V o l 2 6 , N o 1
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children come to the hospital is because we have special things here to make them well,” Betty explains. “They can see the bed is something special.” “What is it like to be here?” Betty asks the young patient. “Idon’t like the food,” she replies honestly. Sometimes the children say “yuccky” usually because of the shots or because they miss their mothers. “I like them to bring that up because when you come to the hospital there are shots that are not pleasant, but they are beneficial and we can talk about that,” Betty explains. “We can talk about what you can do if you are lonely like calling your mommy on the phone, or being with your foster grandmother, or going to the playroom and talking with the nurse. They can see how loneliness and fear are taken care of.” Betty points out that the tour emphasizes the good things as well as the unpleasant. The patient may tell the group, “I got my heart fixed, or my leg got better.’’ They tell about the things to do in the playroom and craftroom. Since many of these children may have experiences in other hospitals, the tour leaders emphasize that the medical center is a special kind of hospital. Betty also acknowledges that on the tours “we have experiences that some people would not consider positive. Because we are a major medical center, we have children who are severely retarded, or grossly deformed, or who may be dying. The children often ask questions and I try to answer them as honestly as I can. There are realities and unpleasant things in the hospital, and when children come here they are going to see those things. I think it is easier to see them while they are well rather than when they are sick.” As we stopped outside one room, the young girl who was helping Betty explained that we couldn’t go in that room because a young boy was very sick. After groping for words, she said simply, “He is dying.” These tours are most meaningful if children are prepared ahead of time, and the visit to the hospital is integrated into a learning experience. This class’s teacher had read some books on hospitalization to them, and they had talked about what they expected to
14
see. After their visit to the hospital, the children played with items they brought back with them-a mask, some gloves, a syringwsing them on dolls. Some classes construct a hospital corner in their classroom. At the Rahway Hospital, the open house for well children was initiated by Irene Zweig, RN, a pediatric staff nurse. She was con: cerned about the misconceptions children have about hospitals, which cause emotional turmoil when they are hospitalized. She feels it is important for children to become acquainted with hospitals while they are well. The children see a slide presentation about the hospitalization of two children, then tour the hospital seeing the emergency center cast room and a hospital room and its equipment. Writing in Maternal Child Care, Mrs Zweig states, “We have received many letters thanking the hospital and its staff for making hospitalization a less-frightening experience for the child and his parents. And since preventing psychological traumas and alleviating common misconceptions are the goals of our program, we consider the open house a success.” About 50 children participate in each tour. Tours are booked two to three months in advance. Mrs Zweig hopes the success they have experienced will inspire other hospitals to open their doors to the community. The anxiety level of children who come to the operating room suite is often high. Nurses, physicians, parents, and others concerned have become more aware of the necessity of preparing children for surgery and their hospital experience. Many hospitals’ offer preadmission tours for children, and an article in next month’s Journal will describe the preadmission program at Hope Haven Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. Hospital tours for well children are not common but are an innovative way to make hospitals more humane and caring institutions for children and parents.
Elinor S Schrader Editor Note8 1. Irene Katz Zweig, “A new way to get acquainted with the hospital-pediatric open house for well children,” The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing 1 (1976) 217-219.
AORN Journal, July 1977, Vol26, No 1
B ! i
Hospital tours for well children help them to cope “When I get a sore throat, I am going to come to this hospital.” This was the verdict of one preschooler after a tour of the University of Colorado Medical Center (UCMC). The center conducts tours for well children to introduce them to the hospital and the people who work there. In New Jersey, the Rahway Hospital holds a pediatric open house two Sundays a month for well children who come with their parents or with groups. Children scheduled for surgery are also invited to the open house.’ Other hospitals offer similar programs. Tours for well children are an innovative way of bringing the hospital and community together and helping children and parents cope with hospitalization. At Rahway Hospital, pediatric nurses believe they “can see a difference” in children scheduled for surgery who have been on the tour. They are more cooperative and less anxious. At UCMC, preschool children come to the hospital with their classes. Betty Frain, children’s activity coordinator (inpatient), explains that this age group was selected because “preschool children have the most difficulty understanding hospitalization. They don’t have the ability to reason, but they have television and, as a result, many misconceptions.“ She said that one boy scheduled for surgery expected to be bionic.
“I tried to explain to him,” she said, “that we don’t do bionics. He was most disappointed.” Betty points out that a large percentage of children have contact with hospitals, either as patients or having a member of their family hospitalized. Having an opportunity to visit a hospital can also make it easier to understand a classmate’s hospital experience. We recently joined a group of 12 preschoolers for a tour of the University of Colorado Medical Center. Once all the shoelaces were tied, our leader Doris Klein, who is children’s activity coordinator (outpatient), took us to the outpatient department, the part of the hospital probably most familiar to the children. She talks about routine examinations the children may experience on an outpatient visit or a visit to their doctor’s office. The children embellish her talk with their own experiences. She shows them the stethe scope and the blood pressure cuff, the ophthalmoscope, and percussion hammer. Showing them a tongue depressor, she talks about throat cultures, which leads to a discussion of what children dislike most-shots. “Do shots hurt?” There is a chorus of yeses. “Yes, they do,” she agrees, explaining why shots are necessary. For the second part of the tour to the pediatric unit we joined Betty Frain and a young girl who is a patient in the unit. Visiting a hospital room, the children get an idea of what being in the hospital is like. They see how the bed goes up and down and how the railings protect them from falling. “I emphasize that one of the reasons
AORN Journal, July 1977, V o l 2 6 , N o 1
13
children come to the hospital is because we have special things here to make them well,” Betty explains. “They can see the bed is something special.” “What is it like to be here?” Betty asks the young patient. “Idon’t like the food,” she replies honestly. Sometimes the children say “yuccky” usually because of the shots or because they miss their mothers. “I like them to bring that up because when you come to the hospital there are shots that are not pleasant, but they are beneficial and we can talk about that,” Betty explains. “We can talk about what you can do if you are lonely like calling your mommy on the phone, or being with your foster grandmother, or going to the playroom and talking with the nurse. They can see how loneliness and fear are taken care of.” Betty points out that the tour emphasizes the good things as well as the unpleasant. The patient may tell the group, “I got my heart fixed, or my leg got better.’’ They tell about the things to do in the playroom and craftroom. Since many of these children may have experiences in other hospitals, the tour leaders emphasize that the medical center is a special kind of hospital. Betty also acknowledges that on the tours “we have experiences that some people would not consider positive. Because we are a major medical center, we have children who are severely retarded, or grossly deformed, or who may be dying. The children often ask questions and I try to answer them as honestly as I can. There are realities and unpleasant things in the hospital, and when children come here they are going to see those things. I think it is easier to see them while they are well rather than when they are sick.” As we stopped outside one room, the young girl who was helping Betty explained that we couldn’t go in that room because a young boy was very sick. After groping for words, she said simply, “He is dying.” These tours are most meaningful if children are prepared ahead of time, and the visit to the hospital is integrated into a learning experience. This class’s teacher had read some books on hospitalization to them, and they had talked about what they expected to
14
see. After their visit to the hospital, the children played with items they brought back with them-a mask, some gloves, a syringwsing them on dolls. Some classes construct a hospital corner in their classroom. At the Rahway Hospital, the open house for well children was initiated by Irene Zweig, RN, a pediatric staff nurse. She was con: cerned about the misconceptions children have about hospitals, which cause emotional turmoil when they are hospitalized. She feels it is important for children to become acquainted with hospitals while they are well. The children see a slide presentation about the hospitalization of two children, then tour the hospital seeing the emergency center cast room and a hospital room and its equipment. Writing in Maternal Child Care, Mrs Zweig states, “We have received many letters thanking the hospital and its staff for making hospitalization a less-frightening experience for the child and his parents. And since preventing psychological traumas and alleviating common misconceptions are the goals of our program, we consider the open house a success.” About 50 children participate in each tour. Tours are booked two to three months in advance. Mrs Zweig hopes the success they have experienced will inspire other hospitals to open their doors to the community. The anxiety level of children who come to the operating room suite is often high. Nurses, physicians, parents, and others concerned have become more aware of the necessity of preparing children for surgery and their hospital experience. Many hospitals’ offer preadmission tours for children, and an article in next month’s Journal will describe the preadmission program at Hope Haven Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. Hospital tours for well children are not common but are an innovative way to make hospitals more humane and caring institutions for children and parents.
Elinor S Schrader Editor Note8 1. Irene Katz Zweig, “A new way to get acquainted with the hospital-pediatric open house for well children,” The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing 1 (1976) 217-219.
AORN Journal, July 1977, Vol26, No 1
