More than 30 children have taken part in a new initiative aimed at helping to reduce stress and anxiety suffered by youngsters receiving treatment or undergoing surgeries at a hospital in Bahrain.
The programme, launched by Awali Hospital, allows children of all nationalities, aged three and above, to take part in a unique effort where they can drive toy cars to the operating room and dress up in superhero and super princess capes. Also, as part of the project, children will receive a bravery certificate once procedures have been completed.
“After numerous discussions with our team, we wanted to come up with an initiative that would make each child’s journey through the hospital more calming and enjoyable,” the hospital’s medical director and ENT consultant Dr Hiba Alreefy told the GDN. “It’s really important to make children and parents feel safe and relaxed when the child has to undergo a medical procedure.”
As a parent herself, Dr Alreefy admitted that when she takes her child to a healthcare facility, patient confidentiality, safety and high-quality care should be at the forefront of the hospital’s priorities. “We have received positive feedback from parents since the initiative has begun,” she said, adding that the initiative is not just to ease children’s anxieties but also that of the parents.”
Children who are undergoing treatment related to ears, nose and throat (ENT) operations to breathing disorder procedures and other surgeries are taking part in the initiative.
Meanwhile, paediatrician Dr Egas Moura highlighted that numerous medical articles have found that both children and parents experience substantial stress and anxiety when a child is hospitalised, and their anxieties can affect each other.
According to a study in the National Library of Medicine, entitled, Magnitude and Factors Associated with Preoperative Anxiety Among Paediatric Patients: Cross-Sectional Study, 75.14 per cent of children experience anxiety in the operation room.
The study also found that children with anxious parents had a 3.43 times higher incidence of anxiety in the operating room than children with non-anxious parents.
Anxiety in children can also affect their recovery as they could exhibit behaviour changes and suffer a higher risk of pain in the postoperative period.
“This is why, when we set up initiatives that are aimed at easing children’s worries, they are also targeted to the parents,” he explained, adding that if children exhibit less signs of anxiety, parents also become more relaxed and vice versa.
“We have also seen some of the children take their superhero capes home with them, proving that the initiative really does ease some of their stress and worries,” he added.
In addition to the toy cars and the superhero capes, doctors in the hospital try to avoid worry-triggering words and instead use light-hearted terminology.
“Instead of saying we are going to do a surgery to remove the tonsils for example, we say we will clean the mouth, and we call the operation room the fun room,” explained Dr Alreefy.
Set up in 1937 to help support Bapco employees and their families, the hospital caters to the needs of the local community through a wide range of services including cardiology, dental, dermatology, endocrinology, ears nose and throat, family medicine, gastroenterology, oncology and more.
The GDN previously reported that several local charity groups have been distributing stuffed teddy bears, painted T-shirts and toys to cancer-stricken children and survivors at the Abdulla Kanoo Oncology Unit at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) in a similar bid to lessen the trauma on a hospital stay for the young.
julia@gdnmedia.bh
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