Video Preps Kids for Surgery
Surgery can be a frightening prospect at any age, but a new videotape
developed by experts at Riley Hospital for Children, a Clarian Health
Partner, can help soothe the fears of youngsters preparing for a
trip to the operating room.
Getting Ready for Your Operation helps children and their families
understand what they’ll see, hear, smell and experience as
they prepare for surgery, what will happen while they are asleep,
and what they will wake up to in the recovery room. The nine-minute
video, which was filmed in the Riley Day Surgery area and its operating
rooms, depicts animated characters “Riley the Giraffe”
and his young friend “Johnny” in an easy-to-understand
format appropriate for toddlers and primary-school-aged children.
The information is general enough to apply to most pediatric surgical
environments and can be used as a teaching tool at medical facilities
or sent home for families to watch together. It is available in
Spanish, and with captions for hearing-impaired children and their
families.
“Informal surveys at Riley have shown the average child’s
greatest source of anxiety is confusion about anesthesia and how
it works,” says Riley family support nurse Shelley Suarez,
RN, who oversaw production of the video. “Showing youngsters
the process step by step and demonstrating to them that doctors
and nurses are doing everything to make them safe certainly brings
reassurance to children of all ages.”
Getting Ready for Your Operation is available to health-care providers
for $30 on VHS and $35 on DVD. For more information or to order
a copy, call (800) 265-3220. Information about the video is also
available at www.rileyhospital.org/document.jsp?locid=1159.
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