More than 700 kids — ages 8 to 15 — came to HUP this spring to celebrate Take Your Children to Work Day. And they had plenty to keep them busy!
Staff from Nursing Education, Innovation, & Professional Development taught the ABCs of CPR, and kids quickly discovered it’s not as easy as it looks! And everyone, young and old, learned where to place their hands for the Heimlich maneuver. “The kids left knowing they have a new skill,” said Dina Bammer, MSN, Nursing Professional Development specialist.
Physical Plant offered an arts and crafts project, helping participants create their own Penn shields. And staff in the Heart & Vascular ICU on Founders 5 offered children the opportunity to touch cow, chicken and lamb hearts, and let them see their own veins and hear their own pulses and gown up like they were in the OR. Rhoads 4, a surgical unit, held a Jeopardy competition, with categories that included “Things you find in hospitals” and “Nursing Essentials.” At each session, two teams went head to head, and competition was stiff! A fire safety demo in the ED driveway offered a hands-on demonstration of putting out a fire using water fire extinguishers.
Members of Staffing for All Seasons explained how nurses do assessments with simple questions: Do you know what day it is? Can you follow my finger with your eyes only, not moving your head? It might not seem important, but nurses are learning a lot about their patients.
Stress is a daily occurrence in a hospital, on many levels. Pastoral Care staff offered kids and their adult chaperones instruction on some stress busters, including yoga and mindfulness meditation. Rabbi Simcha Zevit said one participant from last year took what he learned back to his coach, telling him how it would help members of their team be more focused. The coach tried it and a year later, it’s still part of their routine!
Take Your Children to Work is a massive undertaking at HUP. Staff from more than 20 patient care units and other areas worked to create activities that not only kept the kids entertained but helped them learn about what it’s like to work in a hospital. Special thanks to Alexis Brimm, Phanerrica Muhammad, Irena Voda, and Tasheaire Glenn of Nursing Administration “who worked for hours, trying to make this a great day for the children,” said Anne Campion of the Nursing Network Center.