Teddy Bear Hospital – The Netherlands (IFMSA NL)

Name of the activity: Teddy Bear Hospital

Country/NMO: The Netherlands (IFMSA NL)

Program: Children Health & Rights

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

Medical and children from 4-7 years old (mental age for mental disabeld children).
The children of the primary schools from the neighborhood are by the hand of a medical student into a specially designed hospital for children and Teddy Bears. These hospitals a weekly event in all academic hospitals in the Netherlands. In these Teddy Bear Hospitals students and children try to cure the Teddy Bears and other stuffed animals.

Focus area:

Children’s mental health, Children & the dangers of substance abuse, Children & healthy habits (physical activity, healthy eating, hygiene, etc), Children’s rights with emphasis on the right to health and access to healthcare services

Problem statement:

Lack of knowledge in children about healthcare, the function and goal of a hospital. This lack of knowledge will in turn cause fear of the hospital in children. The Teddy Bear Hospital tries to tackle this problem in a playful way children can understand.
The second problem that can be established, is that children require a different approach which canbe challenging for medical students. This project will help the students learn how to communicate with patients and more important with children.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

(Medical) students and children from 4-7 years old (also mental age for mentally disabled children).

The whole national healthcare will benefit from this project. Doctors, dentists, nurses and psychologists all have a role in this event. Additionally, this projects affects public health due to the attention for physical activity, healthy food and overall hygiene.

Objectives and indicators of success:

One of the objectives of the teddy bear hospital is to have as many as the capacity can handle children and students participate. With a main goal to reach many people to make them aware of public health and healthcare.
Right now, the indicators of success are the amount of children and medical students participating. In the near future we hope to include other other factors such as time spended in the event, preparation, fear taken away by children/impact and people reached by promotion.

Methodology:

At the moment, the amount of children participating varies between the 8 locations. To get as many kids to participate as possible, local primary schools are invited. Every location has a tight schedule to fulfill to goal to educate as many children as possible. Every year the teddy bear hospital committees evaluate their own edition and try to perfect it for the next year.
The second target group is formed by the participating (medical) students. We try to reach those students by facebook evenements, posters and little information talks in between college hours.

Plans for evaluation:

We sent a google form to all the events organised in our country and we try to visit every city during their event. After the event we make an call appointment with every chairman of the committee to evaluate and ask where they needed help. For the future we want to set up a new system that will whether the kids actually got less scared of hospital because of Teddy Bear Hospital.