Treatment in hospital? It's child's play
SPENDING time in hospital can be harrowing for an adult, but for a child the experience of being away from home, school and friends can be even more traumatic.
Problems can range from a toddler battling serious illness, who is afraid and does not understand what is happening to them, to the teenager who is missing important GCSE preparation work through time spent in a hospital bed.
For more than 20 years, Northampton General Hospital has been giving support to youngsters by providing help with all stages of schooling, ranging from primary lessons to exam preparation.
A play team also works from the hospital, using role play and toys to both entertain youngsters and teach them more about what is happening to their bodies.
Until now, the hospital's play team and Northamptonshire County Council's school staff have operated separately, but for the first time the two teams have merged and, since last week, they have been working alongside each other from the newly-named activity centre.
The decision was made as focusing all the work in one centre now means the play team has more space to work – as their previous area was a small, cupboard-like room – and staffing resources can be shared more successfully.
Play specialist Sue Faulkner said: "We have always had both services, but we are both aiming for the same thing; we want to make sure there are no long-term effects from hospitalisation. Now we have also changed the name from school room to activity centre."
Entering the activity centre, in one of the hospital's children's wards, a visitor could be forgiven for thinking he or she had entered a nursery or school and not another room in a hospital.
With its brightly-coloured wall displays, piles of toys, dolls, paper and pens, there is little visible difference; but looking more closely visitors soon notice that some of the dolls are wearing tiny bandages. Miniature doctors' jackets are there for children to wear and there are toy cannulas and other play medical equipment for children to use.
The aim of the venture is to take away some of the children's fears about hospital treatment and to bring back an element of normality into what can be some of the hardest times in their lives.
Sue said: "We make sure the children have play when they come to hospital and we also use play to prepare children for any procedures and treatments they are going to have. We use toys and books so they have an understanding of what is happening. We also help with coping strategies to make things as pleasant as possible."
She added: "We make sure children are understanding their treatments correctly. Many have seen programmes like Holby City or Casualty and have misconceptions or other children who have been in hospital might tell them stories."
What began as a group of workers providing play opportunities for children turned into a specialist play service which aims to make the hospital experience less frightening for youngsters.
And older children can be affected too.
Teacher Chris Woods has a background in both primary and secondary education and now she works at the hospital with children up to 16, developing lessons for small groups and individuals.
She said: "The education team teaches the children while they are in hospital, making lessons as interesting and fun as possible, whilst following the National Curriculum.
"We also talk to the children's usual schools about what they would be doing in school, so that they do not miss out on what their friends are doing."
"The activity centre gives children a chance to socialise with others while they are in hospital and also provides a more normal routine and structure for their day.
"It also means that parents can confidently take a break for themselves and their other children, knowing the children are happily occupied."
When children are too sick to attend the centre, staff go to bedsides to help with schoolwork and recently one teenager even took GCSE exams from his hospital bed.
Mr Woods said: "Normality and routine are really important to children and when they work in the centre they usually say things like, 'We have one of those at school,' or 'We did that last term'.
"Children and parents can be worried about what they miss."
The nature of the work can mean that education staff at the hospital have continued contact with individual children for some years.
Mr Woods said: "Some people have conditions which mean they are in and out of hospital throughout their lives and there are some children who have grown up coming in and out of hospital.
"It seems strange, but we enjoy when they come into hospital and we always give them a massive welcome. It is always difficult when we say goodbye to children."
From a four-year-old patient . . .
"I'M not going to die, am I?" was the frightening question posed to Lisa Webb by her little daughter, Kelly, following her leukaemia diagnosis in November 2004.
Kelly is now four years old and is coming to the end of her treatment, but helping a child as young as this to understand a condition as serious as leukaemia, as well as calming fears of certain medical procedures, is not an easy task.
Ms Webb said the hospital's play team, which has now merged with the Northamptonshire County Council-funded school group, was invaluable in helping Kelly through the treatment process.
She said: "When she was first diagnosed, she would say, 'I'm not going to die, am I?' Mainly they know a lot more than you think they know, but for the most part she just gets on with it."
She added: "In the beginning, when they put cannulas (intravenous needles] in, that was frightening for her and she was crying every time."
But play specialist Sue Faulkner explained that the team used various strategies to help support Kelly through her fears and explain what was happening.
She said: "We would go into the treatment room with her and try to help her understand the situation and why she is having the medicine and how it will work.
"Role play is also brilliant and it enables us to observe and find out her levels of understanding.
"I might go with her and use a doll to show her how something works."
Having spent two years in and out of hospital, Kelly has inevitably missed some nursery and school, but time spent in the hospital's activity centre helped fill in some of the educational gaps.
Her mother said: "I think it is great because I can get some time on my own, as if you are stuck in one room with the family it can be draining, to say the least.
"The staff know what they are talking about and at the beginning it was a lot better for them to give explanations than me. I couldn't anyway, as I just cried.
"When Kelly is here, she uses the activity room all day and, as soon as you walk on the ward, she wants to be there and not in her room."
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