Hospitalized Kids Reverse Roles with Caregivers and Become "Doctors for a Day"

Child Life Specialists at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital organize the annual event in an effort to help children understand and cope emotionally with the medical experience.

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St. Joseph's Children's Hospital

Mar 26, 2015, 02:27 ET

TAMPA, Fla., March 26, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On March 25, 2015, doctors and nurses at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital handed over their white coats and stethoscopes to a group of very special caregivers – hospitalized kids.

Dr. Erin Cockrell, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa, prepares to have her finger pricked by 6-year-old Ian Herrygers during the hospital's annual "Doctors for a Day" activity March 25, 2015.

Child Life Specialist Karen Miningham helps 7-year-old Samantha Cochran put a neck brace on Child Life Specialist Erin Silber during St. Joseph's Children's Hospital's annual "Doctors for a Day" event March 25, 2015.

Becoming "Doctors for a Day," pediatric patients switched roles with their caregivers and treated pretend illnesses and broken bones. Their patients (doctors and nurses) received treatment on gurneys positioned in the hospital's lobby, which became a waiting room and clinical area for the afternoon. The young doctors even had the opportunity to give 'shots' with needle-less syringes.

"For most children, medical settings are a new, unfamiliar world and it can be easy for them to develop fears and misconceptions," said St. Joseph's Children's Hospital Child Life Supervisor Christi Schwichtenberg. "Giving younger patients a chance to play the part of the doctor or nurse can help lessen their anxiety about procedures they may undergo while at the hospital.

Schwichtenberg and other Child Life Specialists at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital coordinate the "Doctors for a Day" activities to celebrate national Child Life Month. Child Life Specialists use play, education and self-expression to help sick kids adjust to the hospital experience.

From interactive story time to psychological preparation for surgery, and from holiday crafts to play with a special medical procedures doll, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital's Child Life team helps patients view their illnesses and hospital stay as secondary to enjoying the thrills of a normal childhood.

To see photos from the "Doctors for a Day" event, visit St. Joseph's Children's Hospital's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/stjosephschildrens.

About St. Joseph's Children's Hospital
As Tampa's only dedicated children's hospital, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital is designed to meet the unique needs of children and their families by providing high-tech pediatric health care in a family-centered, child-friendly environment. Part of the BayCare Health System, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital is the third largest children's hospital in Florida, providing more acute medical and surgical pediatric care than all other hospitals in Hillsborough County.

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SOURCE St. Joseph's Children's Hospital