My trip to hospital – DVD resource



Queensland Health, Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital
Nic, 8 years old, was recently admitted to hospital after an accident. Nic watched My trip to hospital DVD at home shortly after the hospital visit to Emergency in a Sydney hospital. His older sister was with him in the Emergency waiting room and also watched the DVD…
They had different parts about going to hospital that most kids would not know. Probably they would only know about tongues, ears and temperatures and scales. Probably they need to show a little bit more about cuts, twisted ankles and broken bones since most accidents happen that way. I thought it was funny when they sang about radiology and you got to know all about hospital equipment.
Nic’s sister (aged 13 years) 

The DVD was good, they looked at the ward and I think one of the things worth knowing about was the rollout bed where your parents could stay. It was comforting to know that your parents could sleep there. They showed you hospital equipment and told you the needles were only going to hurt for a short time, the pain would be over and done with. Another thing was they told you about waiting and what your parents would be doing, ‘more paper work’. You are prepared because you know what to bring, pyjamas and a book. The playroom is great because hospital is not just about going and staying in a bed doing nothing, there are other things to do besides just sitting there. You could ask the nurse to go to the play area with you and you can be with your siblings and be with other children in your age group.

My trip to hospital DVD and books can be borrowed from the AWCH library. Visit Queensland Health, Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital for the My trip to hospital program.  Find useful information about preparing your child for hospital, written for children, young people, parents and families. Importantly, there are some general tips about when to tell your child and what to tell them about going to hospital.

Other preparation includes medical play with stuffed animals and toys, reading books and helping to pack the hospital bag.

 

Jillian Rattray
AWCH librarian
May 2015


F is for Feelings – from fear to resiliency – resource


It can be hard for a teenager when her peers move from the excitement of “can I sign your cast” to “it’s really going to hurt when they take it off”?

 

Fresh out of a visit to hospital with my daughter yesterday, I’m reminded of the importance of feelings. It seems all too obvious, that a trip to hospital will result in feelings of anxiety and fear.

Photo from: http://www.clipartpanda.com

Yet my thirteen year old had shown stoicism from the outset of breaking her arm. She picked herself up and trudged across the sporting field asking for her water bottle. Meanwhile I hastened to keep up, asking her to slow down. Over the weeks she coped with waits at two hospital emergency departments, an adult’s hospital and a children’s hospital, then repeated waiting at orthopaedic and x-ray clinic queues. She had it down pat and knew where to go and what to do, seeing herself as one of the many other children waiting for treatment.
There were certainly challenges along the way, worst being no food or drink and for me watching the pain under gas as her arm was manipulated and put back into shape. Once again I had to hasten to keep up as she jumped up after the procedure to head off to make an appointment at the orthopaedic clinic. The only sign of something being wrong was the cast from wrist and over bent elbow.
Later that night the pain and challenge of sleeping with a heavy bent elbow came. This was followed by challenges of dressing, washing, undertaking school work with her weak arm and carrying a heavy  bag which included books and a laptop. Transport on the bus with kids pushing and pulling also led to pain and concern. Despite all this she managed to walk, run and dance her way through the weeks.

Photo from:
http://www.kleurplaten.nl/kleurplaten/12308.gif

So where in all this resiliency do fearful feelings occur? It can be hard for a teenager when her peers move from the excitement of “can I sign your cast” to “it’s really going to hurt when they take it off” and so the stories begin.
I wasn’t prepared for my daughter’s sleepless night that preceded the day when the cast came off or for the impact of some of the “kid-fabricated” stories.  As we waited one last time in the waiting room she was distracted by the funny things around her, a parent talking to their young child about what was on TV, “look there’s a penguin with a rainbow coloured beak”, no it’s a puffin she thought! Just when things weren’t looking good she was called up. One boy had cheered earlier when his name was called, adults chuckled, a moment of relief.

Photo from:
http://www.123rf.com/clipart-vector/zombie_arm.html

What made the difference to my daughter’s trepidation were the explanations health professionals gave. Speaking to her and demonstrating the procedure of having the cast taken off made all the difference. Phrases like “what you can expect”, “what you might expect” were really helpful. She even smiled as the cast came off. She was glad her arm was not green.

Being “armed” with information makes all the difference. The first test of this was as she reluctantly passed by the swings on our way to the car. It was great to know that she understood and can resist the temptation to hop on a swing, bike or other moving object.
How can books and resources help?
As parents, we won’t always know what our children are feeling. The AWCH library holds books to help adolescents and children understand what they are feeling. There are books written to help children identify and manage how they are feeling so they can develop self-esteem and coping skills.
 A book to help adolescents is the Stress reduction workbook for teens: mindfulness skills to help you deal with stress. Teenagers can use this easy to read workbook with activities to develop an understanding of what stress is and how to live in the present moment, “mindfulness”. They will gain a sense of control over stressful situations and develop resilience.
There are books too for school children such as Relax, which teaches relaxation techniques or Be the boss of your stress : self-care for kids and Be the boss of your pain: self-care for kids.  
Nowadays there are plenty of online resources to help children and families prepare for hospital experiences, an example for young children is the child-friendly free app Okee in medical imaging. This fun app will help young children learn all about medical imaging and feel relaxed and supported.
Help! My Child’s in Hospital has practical advice for parents on preparing their child for hospital. Visit the website to find out about other families experiences.
Everybody stay calm: how to support your young child through medical tests and procedures will also help families prepare. These books will help parents with practical skills to support their children through stressful times, so they gain confidence and better health.
So I invite you to borrow a book and be well prepared for that next encounter with the doctor, dentist or hospital.

 

Jillian Rattray
AWCH librarian
April 2015

 

Help! My Child’s in Hospital!

Help! My Child’s in Hospital: A parent’s survival guide. Practical advice for parents on preparing your child and caring for them in hospital.
By Becky Wauchope ~ Illustrations by Kaitlyn Miller

“Help! My Child’s in Hospital” is a great read if you are looking for something positive to prepare your child and family for hospital. Written in a warm, personal and easy-to-read style, Becky Wauchope describes what it is like to be in hospital and how to cope with anything from an emergency visit to a long stay and repeated visits. Her experiences with son Gus in over three years of repeated visits to hospital, have resulted in a practical and creative book. Lots of tips throughout provide starting points for children and parents to encourage coping and reduce fear. There are ideas to help keep life as normal as possible with play and some fun. The easy to follow ideas are particularly good for families with young children, Becky has many years experience as an early childhood worker. There are great tips and creative ideas to assist children and families with hospital preparation, daily life in hospital, tests and procedures, anaesthesia and surgery, medication, support and recovery.

This is a stressful time, so parents who are time poor can dip into the book and read on a topic, such as “Having an operation” and read about how to prepare and cope with fasting. Reading the book cover to cover is also a great way to gain an overview.

The book emphasises communication for parents, who know their child best, to work with health professionals for the best care. Honest conversation with your child providing the right amount of information is also a positive step. Parents can read about how to be child advocates, there are examples of steps for being prepared when talking with health professionals. Parents are encouraged to know their limits and if not able to help reduce a child’s fear or confusion then they are empowered to ask for help. Parents are a reassuring presence.

Some variations of what you may expect to find in different hospitals are covered. Parents will feel more aware and strengthened by both the information and supportive ideas. “Help! My Child’s in Hospital” highlights why preparing yourself and your child for the hospital experience is so important.

Find checklists at the back, with what to pack including Surprise packs that offer distraction. With cute illustrations, helpful layout and available for a reasonable price, this book would be a great addition to a Kindy library, hospital waiting room or public library. Copies are available for loan from the Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare (AWCH) Library and can be purchased via Becky’s website.

About the author:
The Wauchope family were about to emigrate to Australia from the UK, when Gus, the youngest of four developed severe breathing problems. This was the beginning of a three year journey through hospital readmissions in the UK and then Australia. Gus is now well and Becky has made numerous speaking engagements, run support groups and encourages people to share their stories. Find her website at: www.helpmychildisinhospital.com

Keywords:  Anaesthesia; Child; Child, Preschool; Communication; Hospital preparation; Hospitalization; Medication; Parent information; Preparation for anaesthesia; Preparation for medical and surgical procedures; Routines; School children

Jillian Rattray
AWCH Librarian
July, 2013

Thanks A Million

As AWCH celebrates its 40th anniversary during 2013, it is timely to reflect on all the AWCH volunteers past and present who have contributed to the improvements made in the care of children in Australian hospitals over the last 40 years.

 

From the very first meeting in 1973 when a bunch of concerned men and women got together to form an association, AWCH volunteers have worked hard to make things so much better for children and their families.

 In the words of Doris Hart, first Secretary and National Organiser of AWCH – the moving force behind the Association’s initiatives from 1973 to 1983 – there was a dark underside to children’s hospitalisation….

 
‘In the newspapers and magazines of the 1960s/70s, information about children in hospital centred around hospital success stories; visits of royalty and film stars; Easter bunnies delivering a surfeit of Easter eggs; and Father Christmas and his helpers with an abundance of toys and good cheer. The stories conveyed images of hospitals working near miracles; of everyone caring about children in hospital and of the kindness shown by hospitals for their child patients.
 

All of this was true but it hid a very dark underside to the hospitalisation of children – long term, often devastating, emotional trauma.

 

In Australia, the need for change was heralded by the concern expressed in 1970 by the Aust. & N.Z. College of Psychiatrists. Their Position Statement entitled “The admission of mothers to hospital with their young children” accused hospitals of……doing more damage in one year than all the psychiatrists together could undo in several years. . .

That hospitalisation could have such devastating effects on young children was well known to me. In the late 1960’s I worked for three years in the children’s unit of a psychiatric hospital handling the most severely emotionally disturbed children in the State. Hospitalisation at an early age appeared regularly in the case histories of these children.

One would have expected the psychiatrists’ position statement to bring forth cries for an immediate enquiry and remedial action. Instead, it was virtually ignored. The hospitals’ case was that parents upset children who were soon settled and better off without them. A fallacy already forcefully disproved by the published works, both written and audiovisual, of James and Joyce Robertson https://www.awch.org.au/2-year-old-goes-to-hospital.php
 

The “cage” cot with a wire frame 1976

If the mother (or the child’s caring person) was not admitted, how did hospitals cope? Nurses did their best in an often impossible situation. For the most part, children simply cried until they became withdrawn and “settled”. Distressed toddlers were particularly difficult to manage. In their anguish they often tried to climb out of the cot. Fearing that they would harm themselves they were sometimes put in restrainers. Documented cases of children choking to death in them discouraged the practice. Another method was to put a wire frame over the top of the cot thus making it into a cage.

 In the 1970’s, I saw one of these in a regional hospital in NSW, another one in Victoria. In each case, the hospitals saw the cage as a perfectly valid solution that ensured the child’s safety, even though there were empty beds at the side of the cot which could have been used by a parent. Indeed, in Victoria I was told the cage was used because the child was the only one in the ward so, instead of having a nurse there just for one patient, the sister in the adult ward kept popping in. When I asked why they hadn’t admitted the child’s mother in these circumstances, I was told it wasn’t hospital policy. The nurse admitted she would willingly have let the mother stay (had it been allowed) as the toddler was a nuisance disturbing and upsetting her patients all night.

Of course, most hospitals did not use restrainers or cages, but there were still very distressing sights associated with necessary treatments. I remember seeing a very young child in a side ward with his eyes swathed in bandages and his wrists tied to the sides of the cot so that he did not pull off the bandages. He was kept heavily sedated but one couldn’t help wondering what fears or dreams he was having in that twilight state. I felt sure his mother holding his hand and comforting him would have helped.
 

Cracking the system

In the literature, the problems of hospitalisation of children had been identified and the solutions outlined. As hospitals failed to implement more humane policies, there were various attempts by individuals and groups to force action but none had been successful. Hospital boards were thought to be omnipotent. To challenge them from inside the hospital was to invite personal disaster career-wise; to challenge from the outside was to invite ridicule as a trouble-maker.

At the first meeting of the group which subsequently became AWCH I voiced my strongly held convictions:

  • that infants and young children needed their mothers in hospital and that need had to be met
  • that parents and professionals must work together publicly if the above aim was to be achieved

I believed that we could do better by drawing upon Australia’s egalitarian ethos and creating a platform from which all could speak on behalf of the children, free of professional, personal or vested interests.

Thus AWCH was born in the belief that parents and professionals together could crack the system’ for the good of the children.’

During this national volunteers week 2013 AWCH would like to thank all our volunteers both past and present

 

 
If you were an AWCH volunteer between 1973-2013 or know of someone who was please contact AWCH and let us know how you helped awch through your volunteering.

Prescription for success: supporting children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in the Medical Environment


Prescription for success: supporting children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in the Medical Environment

Hudson, Jill
Shawnee Mission, Kan.: Autism Asperger Pub. Co., 2006.

 


Written by a Child Life specialist (Play therapist) from John Hopkins Hospital, this book is essentially aimed at supporting families. It is a communication tool for parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to use when visiting health professionals. The book starts with a look at the medical encounter and presents this experience from the child’s point of view. The title “Prescription for success” reflects the focus on preparation both prior to and during the child’s medical encounter.
The motivation for the book is to support children with ASD better, health professionals in hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, dentists, administrative staff and others will be learn more about the children’s needs from this overview. Importantly, the book is engaging because it is written in a friendly, easy-to-read format and includes practical and creative techniques. Chapters cover the Medical encounter; characteristics of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders; developmental levels; assessment; interventions and supports (pp 49-73) and effective implementation of interventions and supports. A large section on interventions and supports will help to bridge knowledge gaps  medical professionals may experience.
Find also appendices with the role of service providers as well additional resources and games to prepare for medical encounters. There is an accompanying CD with forms, activities and games worksheets which can be printed and duplicated. Illustrations are in black and white. More resources of this nature which are both family-centered and helpful for health professionals, would be welcome.
This book is available for loan from the AWCH collection at call number: 618.9285882 HUD 1

 

Book Review written by
Jillian Rattray
AWCH librarian

 

Therapeutic activities for children and teens coping with health issues

Therapeutic activities for children and teens coping with health issues
By Robyn Hart and Judy Rollins.
John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2011, 379 p. ISBN 9780470555002.
Bibliography, pp  339-364. Includes CD-ROM.

“Therapeutic activities for children and teens coping with health issues” is a book richly filled with activities to assist health professionals, child life therapists, counsellors and social workers in their work with families. Activities and related information promote adaptation and coping for children, adolescents and their families in hospital or living with health issues. It is great to see so many ideas presented in an easily readable format, with over 200 practical activities to choose from.

Chapters focus on promoting understanding and coping for adolescents and children through different aspects of their healthcare experiences. Topics of the 16 chapters include separation and anxiety, self expression, socialization and help with many aspects of coping with illness. Set out in a clear way, each topic covers an overview, special considerations and coping interventions. The theoretical framework behind each topic is outlined. Activities are set out using an easy-to-read table which includes: therapeutic goals, age group, adult/child ratio, required time, restrictions and precautions and materials. You will also find an extensive bibliography (pp  339-364) as well as black and white illustrations and photographs. The accompanying CD has activity sheets and templates that can be customised.

With a great mix of theory and hands on, this book is sure to be a helpful reference tool and provide both information and inspiration. In fact I think I’ll gather up my supplies and try my hand at making a volcano.

About the authors
Robyn Hart, director of Child Life at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Judy Rollins, coordinator of the Studio G Artist in Residence Program at Georgetown University Hospital and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine. This is the second  book they have worked together on, the previous award winning book is entitled, Therapeutic play activities for hospitalized children.

Keywords: Activities; Adaptation, psychology; Adolescent psychology; Bereavement; Body image; Child life; Child, hospitalised; Child psychology; Culture; Death; Families; Group work; Hospitalization; Medical art; Medical equipment; Mental health; Pain; Patients; Play therapy; Self-esteem; Self-expression; Therapeutic activities; Therapy

Awards
Winner of the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year 2011
(Category: Maternal And Child Health)

Other titles also by Judy Rollins available for loan from the AWCH collection:
Meeting children’s psychosocial needs: across the health-care continuum / Judy A. Rollins, Rosemary Bolig and Carmel C. Mahan. Austin, Texas: Pro-ed, 2005. xv, 551 p.: Includes bibliographical references and index. Call number: 618.92 ROL 1
Core curriculum for the nursing care of children and their families / Marion E. Broome, Judy A. Rollins, Editors. Pitman, New Jersey: Jannetti Publications Inc., 1999. Call number: 610.7362 BRO 2

Review By:
Jillian Rattray
AWCH Librarian
March, 2013