HAPPY ROUTINE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 725, 5 June 1953, Page 6

HAPPY ROUTINE

OR the last four to five years at our small private hospital we have had parents visiting their children daily. We have formed a regular routine and find this works very happily and satisfactorily. The parents may visit from 10.0 a.m. to 11.55 a.m., from 1.0 p.m. to 4.55 p.m., and from 5.30 p.m. to 7.0 p.m. This leaves .the nursing staff free to wash children, feed them and do their dressings before mothers come. On the day of an operation mothers are allowed to sit by their children after the case is out of the anaesthetic, as in the case of eye operations, where their

eyes are bandaged, the child is very often frightened. The mothers are really no trouble, as they mainly read stories and talk to the child, and in most cases co-operate with the staff. On the whole, the parent is more contented and the average child far happier for the regular daily visit. Odd visits by parents are not satisfactory; this seems to create an anxiety complex with the children wondering from day to day where they are. A child does not necessarily cry to show it is fretting. Most parents we find make the effort to visit daily while their children are in hospital. In some cases this is an effort at the time, but if the child is to have a good result from an operation for the rest of its life this seems well worth while. We have never felt that the ultimate result of daily visiting by the parents did more harm than good. Only the odd child is perfectly happy without seeing its parents for days on end. We think the mental upset, caused by separation from their mothers leaves very often a lasting nervous effect. We have found over a period of years that our system works very happily both for the patients and the

nursing staff.

Matron

Private Hospital