Surgical Services: Child Life in the Operating Room

Courtney White is a certified Child Life Specialist in the outpatient Surgical Services program at Franciscan Children’s. If you have questions about Child Life, please email us at info@franciscanchildrens.org or call 617-254-3800 ext. 4770.

Courtney (left), Child Life Specialist, works with patients and families in the OR to reduce and distract from the anxiety and fear that can be associated with outpatient surgical procedures.

Have you ever wondered how to prepare your child for surgery and what to tell them? Child Life Specialists help children, adolescents and families cope with the fear and anxiety associated with the medical environment and hospitalization, including outpatient surgeries.

Child Life Specialists are trained professionals with a strong background in child development and family systems, they promote effective coping through play, self-expression activities, and age-appropriate medical preparation and education. As advocates of family-centered care, Child Life Specialists work in partnership with doctors, nurses, social workers and others to meet the unique emotional, developmental and cultural needs of each child and family.

At Franciscan Children’s, we provide children with the highest quality outpatient surgical services in a family-centered environment. Our Operating Room (OR) serves over 250 children per month who have extensive dental needs, developmental disabilities, medically compromising conditions as well as those who have difficulty coping with dental treatment on an outpatient basis (situational anxiety).

Studies have shown that children who are prepared for medical procedures experience less fear and anxiety, and have better long term adjustment to medical challenges. In the OR, our Child Life Specialist provides age-appropriate explanations of what patients can expect during the surgical experience using pictures, medical equipment and anesthesia masks on the day of surgery.

Patients get to see pictures of what the OR will look on an iPad, and then choose from a library of games to play to help distract and soothe them during pre-op and induction. Children can be found giving check-up to Dino the dinosaur, decorating their anesthesia mask with stickers, and choosing a flavor of chap stick to smother on the inside of their masks so the air will smell like their flavor of choice. Raspberry is among the most popular!

Our Child Life Specialist also provides distraction and soothing for patients as they are given anesthesia before the procedure, which helps establish normalcy and promotes a sense of comfort. It’s a successful day in surgery when a patient reports that one of the most difficult parts of their experience was having to choose between the Monkey Lunch Box and Easy Bake games on the iPad!