Lessons from the United States

Child life services is an important part of the pediatrics department in almost every US hospital with such a department. Its mission is to help children having both outpatient and inpatient medical treatment deal with fear or pain.

Child life specialists are involved in the whole circle of a child's experience at the hospital, starting in the waiting area. They help children and their families adjust to the hospital experience, facilitate and support their understanding of hospital procedures such as surgery and CT scans, and help them regain normalcy after being discharged.

For example, days before a child is hospitalized, a child life specialist will invite the child and his or her parents to the hospital to see what the ward is like and see if they need special facilities. They will also be shown around, including the route to the operating room, to get familiar with the environment and conquer fears.

Such specialists will also facilitate medical play to let them know what a medical experience, such as blood drawing, X-ray or a surgical operation, is like from all senses - vision, hearing, feeling and smelling.

For example, they will hear the tinkling sound of the scalpels and touch them to feel that they are a bit cold during medical play in which the young patients act as doctors who perform medical treatments on teddy bears. They also design appropriate activities and play for each child. Play is their form of communication. We want children to be children - even in hospital.

Moreover, the specialists also provide psychological support to siblings of the young patient, as we believe we cannot take care of children without taking care of the rest of the family: the siblings and parents.

Most hospitals also provide music therapy, art therapy and recreation therapy to improve a child's physical, mental, developmental and emotional well-being during hospitalization. For example, some certified recreation therapists bring dogs to hospital wards twice a week, bringing enormous comfort and joy to the children.

We physicians should not just be satisfied with a successful surgery. Instead, we must treat children as a whole. It does no good if we cure children of illness physically but leave them with trauma.

Carenia Kuan spoke with Zhou Wenting.