By Adam Kramer
Schneider Children’s Hospital celebrated Children and Healthcare Week 2001 by welcoming 500 second-grade students Monday to participate in a “hands-on educational” program to encourage youngsters not to be afraid of hospitals and to emphasize the importance of maintaining good health.
Students from elementary schools in Queens and Nassau County spent a little more than an hour at Schneider in New Hyde Park visiting 12 different tables focusing on different aspects of health care at the event, which ran from Monday to Wednesday.
“One key aspect of this educational process is to help remove the fear of visiting a doctor or going to the hospital by allowing the youngsters to speak with doctors and hospital personnel,” said Michelle Pinto, a spokeswoman for Schneider Children’s Hospital. “We are encouraging them to touch some of the instruments and equipment that is regularly used.”
Schneider Children’s Hospital, Long Island Jewish Hospital and Hillside Hospital are part of LIJ Medical Center, an 829-bed facility on the Queens-Nassau boarder.
The children got to spend five to seven minutes at each table with exhibits ranging from the child life program, where they had a cast put on one of their fingers, to getting familiar with the operating room, where the children donned masks and dressed up as surgeons.
Children also stopped by the physical medicine table to use crutches or a walker, the bones table to check out some X-rays of broken legs, and the clinical pathology table to look at blood through a microscope.
“The program will help to alleviate a child’s anxiety about doctors, dentists and hospitals,” said Debbie Riccardi, a nurse and director of community outreach at Schneider. “The program teaches them to cope with the issues surrounding hospitals and doctors.”
The children were introduced to different aspects of the hospital through toys and educational materials. But the best station, Riccardi said, was the ambulance, where the kids got a tour and were allowed to hang with the EMTs for a few minutes.
Kids from the Lexington School for the Deaf in Jackson Heights also went on the tour.
“It is good to expose them to different things,” school staffer Carolyn Izsak said as she worked the station for the hearing impaired. “They are usually insulated and now by being included, they get to feel on par in terms of knowledge with hearing students.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
