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Mallory Addison prescribes laughter. Happiness is her medicine of choice, and when she opens her desk drawer for a patient file, a stuffed animal pops out. Addison is the child life specialist at the Medical Center. It is a new pilot program funded for two years by the Children’s Miracle Network.
Child life specialists help reduce the stress and anxiety that children and their parents may experience in hospital and healthcare settings. Certified professionals have a bachelor’s or master’s degree and have completed an internship program and a rigorous examination process.
Addison, who got her bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Georgia, concentrated her studies in child development and social work and loves helping people during their times of struggle. “If someone took all of my passions and put them into a job, this would be it,” she said of the position at the Medical Center.
Her duties are varied and extensive and include counseling children and their families, organizing volunteers and donations, providing therapies and spreading cheer.
Children who enter a medical facility will face many different fears, Addison said. They range from concern about separation from parents to being terrified of pain. “This is like a foreign country to a child coming into the hospital,” she explained. “It is very scary, usually unexpected and we are all strangers to that child. What I can be is a translator for that child in that foreign country, to make sure that child understands what’s going on.”
Her work begins when a young patient is admitted. She does a psychosocial assessment on the patient and family, andshe determines the child’s developmental stage and medical background. “A 6-year-old who has never been to the hospital has different needs than the 6-year-old with a chronic disease,” she explained.
From there each case is different. If a parent is unable to stay with a child or the child has no family, Addison says that she tries to fill the void. She also prepares children for an IV by using a stuffed animal to show what will happen and what the patient will look like with the IV. “My motto is: take the five senses and explain to the child what they are going to see, feel and hear and how things are going to change. That allows them to cope better.”
Getting the children out of their hospital rooms is one of Addison’s goals. She arranges dance parties, dress-ups and group projects in the playroom. Many of the activities are designed around medical play, such as a guessing box filled with medical equipment that she explains to the children or art projects made of things like tongue depressors and masks.
Children often relate better when they are comfortable in their environment and don’t feel threatened, according to Addison. She cites the case of a teenage girl who had been hospitalized for more than a week and hadn’t spoken a word. She took the patient outdoors and that broke her silence. They talked for 45 minutes. “I learned she was afraid she would die like her mom. It allowed me to dispel that myth.”
Some of Addison’s most important work is trying to prevent sedation. “If I can keep a two-year-old from having to be sedated for a test, I will do everything to keep that from happening. We don’t want to have to give them medicine they don’t need, and the hospital fully supports that.”
She has an array of tricks in her bag to keep a child still while undergoing a procedure. For a 7-month-old who had to have a 5-minute test in a machine, she shone a light on a disco-ball-like ornament and played music. A baby undergoing a spinal tap concentrated on sugar water, which Addison put on a pacifier, and didn’t squirm during the procedure. For babies needing an IV, she will hold the child in a comfortable position, instead of placing the infant on a treatment room table. She adds that bubbles work for anyone under the age of 12.
Addison also brings other distractions into the hospital for the children, like clowns, sports figures and therapy dogs. Teenagers are the most difficult to keep entertained. Addison says, there are two video game systems on the pediatric floor, but often that isn’t enough. The unit does accept donations of new and used toys, except for fabric items.
It’s not just the children that get the Leesburg, Ga. native’s attention. She also works with parents because their anxiety is transmitted and even magnified by their children. “My true belief is that the more normal we can make this for the kids, the faster they will get better,” Addison said.
Tamika Williams, whose 8-year-old son Jacobi Hunt was recently hospitalized, said the IV was a little scary for him, but the teddy bear Addison brought in put him at ease.“Telling him what to expect helped,” said Williams who is a nurse. “I didn’t know how to break it down so he would understand.”
Caitlyn Cawthon’s mom, Lorri, said the child life specialist “took a little bit of that scary edge away.”
“She prepared us, too,” added dad Joel.
Ninety percent of the anxiety is about the unknown, Addison believes. She suggests parents answer questions and explain what’s happening in understandable terms. She points out that using terms like “put to sleep” may make a child think of what the family had to do with a sick pet. A child may think of daddy going hunting and shooting an animal when you talk about shots.
She also recommends setting up a schedule if the hospital stay is going to be for several days. “It lets them see a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Medical Center has been providing the child life specialist as a service for the last five months. Pediatric floor nurse Nikki McNease said that she has seen a change. “The parents seem to be happier. The kids look for [Addison], and the days she’s not here they ask for her.”
Although the program is just a pilot at the Medical Center, Eggleston and Scottish Rite in Atlanta each have 30 child life specialists on staff, and Macon has three. It is a free service and doesn’t make money for a hospital. Addison said it is an investment Columbus Regional is making into patient care. “This shows we are delivering a higher standard of care.”
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