Improving the emotional health of children in intensive care

2023-06-19 09:13:27

Sometimes, the lack of specialized child psychologists in pediatric Intensive Care Units (ICU) pushes nursing staff to take charge of the emotional situation of children. How can we improve the emotional health of patients in pediatric intensive care?

With the aim of improving emotional health and reducing the stress and anxiety suffered by children and their families in intensive care, the project ‘UCI Pediatrics’ de Concomitentes, a non-profit cultural association that tries to connect different groups of civil society with culture.

The initiative, promoted by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundationdevelops in the University Hospital Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Tenerife.

The program seeks, through culture, to improve the emotional situation of children admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

From the first foundations, it has had the constant collaboration of nursing staff hospital of said center, who have worked hand in hand with the group of artists in charge of creating the artistic works.

Felipe González Gil is the mediator of the project. He acts like link between nursing staff y the artists. His work has focused on “understanding the language and health needs of the hospital, and then translating them into artistic language.”

“The work of the nursing staff in the Pediatric ICU goes further. Without specialized knowledge, they work as psychologists for hospitalized children and their families, as teachers who teach them, as clowns who entertain and make them laugh. and sometimes they even act as mothers and fathers”, explains the mediator, highlighting the work of the nursing staff with whom he has collaborated so much.

In an interview for EFE Salud, Felipe Gonzalez Gil He tells us what the ‘Pediatric ICU’ project consists of and how it has already helped hundreds of children in intensive care.

Nursing experts and artists preparing an action plan to bring ‘Pediatric ICU’ to the Hospital and cover needs. Image provided by Felipe GIl

What is the project about?

The Pediatric ICU of the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Tenerife care for children generally from 10 days of age to 16 years of age, so designing an effective project for the emotional support of children and families was not an easy task.

As Felipe González explains, the starting point of the project was to answer the question: “How can we improve the emotional care of children in intensive care?”.

As a result of this initial question, the Concomitentes team carried out an investigation together with the nursing staff and a child and adolescent psychologist.

The documentation process led to a bibliographic review on the management of emotional care in Pediatric ICU patients in different hospitals in Spain.

Finally, from the joint work, the production of three works of art that would help care for the emotional health of children in intensive care:

Hospitaller, an illustrated story that is written by El Hematocrítico, author of children’s literature, and illustrated by Cynthia Hierro. A podcast titled “In the Pediatric ICU” and prepared by the journalist Elena Cabrera.

A mobile library built by the architect of the Civic Innovation Office, Artemi Hernández.

How does this project help improve the emotional health of children in intensive care?

Felipe González Gil explains how the Pediatric ICU project has helped in the emotional support needed by patients in pediatric intensive care and their families.

Hospitaller, a story of struggle and overcoming

Book ‘Hospitalist’ written by The Hematocritic and illustrated by Cynthia Hierro. Image courtesy of Felipe González

The story tells a story focused on “care”, focusing on children.

It is a fictional story but based on real events of enursing staff experiences and patients.

To date, 100 copies have been published and it is giving very positive results in the Canary Islands hospital.

The patients who are using it the most are children between 4 and 10 years of age.

The mediator describes that the nursing staff are very grateful that the children are able to access a story like the one told by ‘Hospital’.

“The nursing staff congratulated us for creating a story in a world where children live surrounded by video games and screens. For them, the story tool forces you to generate a dialogue between the person who tells it and the person who listens to it, forging a very valuable link for the admitted children”, clarifies the mediator.

“In the Pediatric ICU”, a podcast for children and adults

The podcast is made up of a total of 5 chapters that address very different topics. Among them stands out the chapter dedicated to describe what a work shift is like of nursing staff in the Pediatric ICU.

The rest of the chapters focus mostly on collecting the experiences of the admitted children and relatives themselves. Thus, it makes the problems of patients visible and gives voice to many stories that serve to inspire children who are in intensive care, explains the project mediator

“One very interesting thing that has happened is that the podcast is being listened to a lot in the field of nursing, something we did not count on,” defends Felipe Gil.

“This is a very interesting tool to find out what the work carried out by health professionals is in a Pediatric ICU and value it,” adds the mediator.

The mobile library, the door to a new universe

Mobile Library project designed by Artemi Hernández. Image provided by Felipe González Gil.

The Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Tenerife University Hospital has a Children’s Library located on the pediatric floor. However, the pediatric ICU is located on a different floor. This prevents pediatric intensive care patients from using the library.

Therefore, through this invention it is intended to bring culture to children admitted to the Pediatric ICU.

The mobile library is made up of shelves and compartments. It also incorporates a puzzle drawer, wooden games to promote psychomotor skills designed for children from 0 to four years old, a tracing tablefor children between four and eight years old and a sensor drawer designed for children of 9 or 10 years and preteens.

The sensor drawer is an innovation of the project. To make it, the objects that scare the boys and girls in the UCI the most have been selected and a different sound has been associated with them.

This technology allows children who cannot move from the ICU bed to be able to make music with the sounds emitted by these elements through headphones, explains Felipe González.

Future challenge: help more children in intensive care

The results achieved by the program developed by Accompanying for five years have recently been unveiled at an event that took place at CaixaForum Madrid.

In addition, the book has been published ‘Hospitality against prognosis: weaving a common language between artistic practices and nursing work‘ that traces the lines that the project has followed and collects all the fruits that have been achieved.

“This experience has been a journey in which we have dug tunnels to connect two worlds that a priori were not: the health and the cultural,” the mediator alleges.

Felipe González Gil defends on the one hand the idea of extend this project to other hospitals that need it in other parts of Spain.

On the other hand, encourages associations and health personnel to try to improve the emotional health of patients together.

“Despite being developed in Tenerife, the vocation of the project is that it be extended and replicated in other hospitals that need it,” he adds.