The Hospital goes to School

The large role played by schools and hospitals in promoting health care receives a lot of attention. Its aim is to promote communication between eight primary school classes and the hospital in order to encourage the development of resources and coping strategies for the creation of a program to foster life-long good health habits. The school goes beyond the hospitals walls entering the classes in which educational activities were introduced explaining the importance of the hospital providing health care, its structure and the emotional influence a hospital may have in children. The classes then visited neuropediatrics and pediatric wards, met children admitted to the hospital and qualified nurses whom showed the equipments and procedures; they also were acknowledged on hospital activities and disability in general through meetings with a child psychiatrist a surgeon and a psychologist. These meetings led to discussions on illnesses and how they affect their emotions. The final phase consisted in revaluating the childs impressions of hospitals in order to compare them with the feelings they had prior to the visit, and a questionnaire, both to children and teachers, evaluating the experience. The results are discussed as a narrative process of a significative experience.

Keywords: Hospital school, health promotion, scholastic psychology, children, hospital, pediatric hospitalization

Federica Resca, Paola Visconti, Sandra Bertana, Paola Attanasi, Giuseppe Gobbi, L’ospedale va a scuola. Un’esperienza di promozione della salute proposta dalla Scuola Ospedaliera e rivolta ai bambini della Scuola Primaria in "PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE" 2/2011, pp 157-171, DOI: 10.3280/PDS2011-002010