What about those whose holiday seasons are far from wonderful? Sometimes, it’s so easy to get lost in the excitement of the season that we rarely think about what it might be like if a child in our family had to spend the holidays in the hospital.
When you think about these families, all of the cookie baking and overpriced gift-buying seem frivolous. At Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the medical staff and volunteers go above and beyond to make the holidays as special for children as possible.
Heather Ambrose, director of nursing, emphasized the nurses’ everyday dedication to their patients. During the holiday season, however, they go above and beyond to help the children celebrate. In turn, they take pleasure in seeing the enjoyment of the children.
“Nurses engage with the patients, and with the families, to really create an environment and experience that is special, unique, and celebratory of the season,” Ambrose said.
Starting at Halloween, the nurses wear costumes and different colored scrubs, and they put together activities and trick-or-treat items for their patients. Once Thanksgiving approaches, nurses bring in food to share with patients, families, and one another. These traditions and festivities extend throughout Christmas and Hanukkah.
“The nursing and medical staff is an extension of the family,” Ambrose said. “We often become the new ‘normal’ for families, especially since so many of [the children] come from all over the country and some out of the country to get treatment over the holidays. We are their family away from home.”
Even the doctors join in the holiday spirit. Randy Windreich, M.D. within the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapies, said, “Most of us who work the holidays throw on the Santa hats and the elf ears, even when we do rounds on the kids in the morning. It’s just something nice for them to wake up to and see that Christmas feeling in the air.”
Dr. Windreich said the most important thing is to bring joy to the patients and their families.
“For the younger kids, it’s more of just playing with them and interacting with them, whereas the teenagers, it might just be more of losing to them in ‘Mario Kart,'” Dr. Windreich said. “I think it takes just knowing them and spending as much time as we can with them, knowing what they like and what they’re looking for, and what could help them deal with being in the hospital.”
In addition to the phenomenal nurses and medical staff, the hospital has a Child Life Specialist department, which helps children find a sense of normalcy.
“The main focus of Child Life is to take our patients and make sure they feel like kids and not like the diagnosis that brought them here,” Becky Desmond, child life specialist events coordinator, said. “So for us, that is anything that they would normally be doing at home or at school, with their families, and with their friends. We want to replicate that here as much as possible.”
Every week, the hospital has a different holiday theme with crafts, games, and activities. The staff hosts parties, featuring the most popular holiday movies, and numerous local groups perform for the patients, including bands, choirs, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the opera, and the orchestra.
“My favorite event every year is the secret Santa shop we put on for the patients,” Desmond said. “So as a kid, one of the things you did at school was go and buy little trinkets for Mom and Dad, and whomever was important in his or her life, and a lot of our kids miss that opportunity. And they want the opportunity to be the gift-giver at Christmas, so we replicate that shop here—all free to our patients.
“We buy the gifts, and they can come down to get gifts for all of the important people in their lives, and we help them wrap it, so, on Christmas morning, they’re able to give gifts to their families.”
Santa himself checks in on the patients throughout the holidays, sometimes through Skype when he is busy at the North Pole and sometimes in person. He also has a very special visit, at which time he checks on the NICU babies to make sure patients get their very first pictures with Santa.
Child Life Specialist Joe Bauer loves helping the kids make their Christmas lists for Santa, assisting them with travel to other floors for holiday events, Christmas caroling, and reading “The Night Before Christmas” to the kids.
“We encourage families to decorate their rooms, provide them with Christmas lights, and do anything we can to help parents maintain those traditions they’d typically have at home,” Bauer said.
Stephanie Colaberardino, manager of Child Life, Volunteer Services, and Family Resource Center, said the hospital could not do all that it does were it not for the dedicated volunteers, especially during this time of the year.
“Our volunteers are great reminders of what this season is all about—the spirit of giving,” she said.
It is because of the teamwork and collaboration between the volunteers and hospital staff that the hospital becomes filled with magic and holiday spirit. Although spending the holidays in the hospital and away from home is not easy, the people at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh do what they can to make the holiday experience special.
“A couple of years ago, we had a couple of children who needed transplants right before Christmas. And I think that day was a new start, and it was a new beginning. And just being able to give them that opportunity, several years later, makes the holidays even more special,” Dr. Windreich said. “Not only is it a time for family, but it is a time for new beginnings.”