Queen Elizabeth Hospital program uses play to comfort hospitalized kids

In the pediatric unit of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, four-year old Mason Proud crouches over a box of new toys, picking out the trains.

Although he's healthy now, Mason spent much of last year in the brightly coloured playroom.

Amanda Proud said her son was admitted with an infection in his heart. The family stayed at the hospital for three weeks while Mason got antibiotic treatment.

"Yeah, it was a bit of a challenge to keep a three-year-old in bed," she said, " So it was nice to have Shira and the program here to help with that, and try to make his stay more comfortable — for all of us really."

The program, called the Child Life Specialist program, started in 2013.

It's run by Shira Zipursky, a certified child life specialist. Her job is to care for children who are hospitalized, or who make regular visits to the hospital.

She makes the children feel more comfortable about medical procedures, and explains what's going on in terms they can grasp.

"For example, if they're going to get an IV, I explain that it's a drinking straw that's going into their hand," said Zipursky.

"And the needle that helps guide it in is similar to when you get your pants fixed. Then the needle comes out and the drinking straw stays in so that their body can get the medicine that they need to be able to go home."

iPad 'never fails'

When it comes time to have medical procedures, Zipursky distracts the children with things like bubbles or using Play Doh to squeeze out all their worries.

"We get the child to blow the bubbles to help keep their body relaxed ... or light-up toys are really great, and of course we have the iPad which never fails, " said Zipursky.

And when children are unable to come to the playroom, Zipursky goes to them.

Proud said keeping in touch with Zipursky helped relieve some of the stress of the situation.

"The nurses don't have a lot of time to do that sort of thing ... coming in everyday to engage him and just ask him what he was up to and his interests and things, it really took our minds off of why we were there."

'He's pretty calm now'

Julie Smith, the nurse manager of the pediatric unit, has seen first hand how the power of play can counteract pain.

"We have children come in screaming, but through distraction and play ... we have seen that there have been benefits, and they have improved with each one of their visits ... we need to put forth every effort we can to minimize the trauma of the hospitalization."

Zipursky's goal is to eliminate negative associations with the hospital, and to lay the groundwork for more comfortable future visits.

"We're making sure children have less anxiety and more positive experiences so should they need to come back to the doctor or the hospital again at a later time, then they have something to draw on, and hopefully it's less scary for them in the future."

It seems to be working for Mason.

His mother said he recently came back to the hospital for follow-up blood work, and no longer needed to be distracted with bubbles or Play Doh.

"He's pretty calm now ... it seemed to really help him, I think it was a good experience for him," said Proud.