Celebrating International Day of Play
Today we celebrate the role of our Play Team who use their skills to help some of our youngest patients, supporting their development and wellbeing.
Harnessing the power or play and distraction, the team can be found supporting children and their parents/carers across the hospital, from Buxton ward and Children’s Assessment Unit, Children’s Emergency Department, Jenny Lind Out-patients and in phlebotomy and x-ray.
Play Assistants carry out activities with children and provide resources, offering basic distraction for things like blood tests. Our Play Specialists have carried out extra training and have more responsibility to work with more challenging situations such as children who fear needles.
Sarah Fisher, Health Play Specialist said: “We tend to do things like preparation for theatre, working with children and supporting families. On the day ward there are regular visitors and children we know, so we invite them in before surgery, talk about the stages of what will happen and even offer a tour of the anaesthetic room to prepare them.”
The team also support babies and new families. Kat Kitchener, Matron for Children and Young People added: “The Play team are crucial to supporting some of our youngest patients, helping babies meet their developmental milestones which can be halted by long hospital stays.”
Caroline Curzan, Play Assistant loves her job: “I really enjoy the variety of our work, not only where we work across the hospital, but the age range of children you see from 0-16 years.”
The team regularly receives positive feedback via the Friends and Family Test and have even been known to have pets named after them.
Amy Moakes is studying a Play Specialist Apprenticeship and says families and carers are incredibly grateful for the support they receive: “Often parents fundraise for the ward or donate resources because they’ve seen the impact that having them has had on their children.”
Kat explains the team’s role can have a long-lasting impact: “The relationship people have with healthcare is often set in childhood, so giving young patients a positive experience now will help them engage with healthcare in the future.”
Kirstin Skinner, Play Team Manager added: “The 2024 NHS Children and Young People’s Patient Experience Survey benchmark report confirmed all the great work the team do. Our higher-than-average scores relating to how patients are cared for demonstrated excellent feedback relating to activities available and staff playing with the children which is all down to the hard work of the team.”