No shots, just hugs allowed in child’s room
At The Children’s Regional Hospital in Camden, NJ, patient’s rooms are for hugging parents, playing video games, or drawing pictures. They are not for blood draws, IV starts, or spinal taps. Those frightening procedures are reserved for the treatment room down the hall.
Children’s Hospital set aside a room just for treatments when it renovated one of its pediatric wings as part of a hospitalwide change in philosophy to focus care on the patients and their families.
"We built the separate room so they wouldn’t be afraid to go into their own room," says Karan Hoffman, senior health care architect with Ewing, Cole, Cherry, and Brott in Philadelphia. "We wanted them to know it’s your safe place. No one’s going to hurt you in there."
Any hospital can create a treatment room for a minimal cost. In fact, Hoffman says, most hospitals already have a treatment room on the pediatrics floor that can be remodeled. A simple change in policy restricting treatment to the designated room would complete the transition.
At Children’s Hospital, the policy says that physicians and nurses can perform noninvasive procedures in the child’s room such as taking temperatures, checking blood pressure, or giving oral medication. But, anything that will cause the child discomfort must be done in the treatment room, explains Claire Cowen, MA, CCLF, the child life coordinator at Children’s Hospital.
The treatment room itself can vary in cost depending on its use and decor. The size will depend on the number of staff and medical equipment needed to perform the various procedures on the unit.
At Children’s Hospital, the treatment room is designed to serve one patient at a time. It contains a stretcher and the appropriate medical equipment. The room is soundproof to lock in any potential crying so other young patients are not alarmed.
The decor is the room’s notable feature. It is painted in soothing pastels and decorated to distract the children. A kinetic sculpture of wheels and pulleys divert the children’s attention during treatment. The ceiling features pictures of balloons, airplanes, and stars, reminiscent of the movie Around the World in 80 Days. The walls sport graphic designs so the nurse can ask the patient how many blue squares they can count while giving them a shot. Hoffman painted the room on her lunch hour with the help of others.
"We tried to make it the least scary as we could," Hoffman says of the room’s decor. "We are trying to make the best out of a bad situation. We want to make it friendly for the kids and the parents."
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