Medical students’ experience of a Teddy Bear Hospital as part of a paediatric curriculum

Abstract

Introduction: Teddy Bear Hospital is a strategy used to help reduce children's fears of the healthcare system and teach them about health-related issues. It involves mock consultations where medical students play the role of a "teddy doctor" and children act as the carer of teddy, or another soft toy, requiring consultation. This provides medical students with the opportunity to interact with children and develop communication skills while children are introduced to the medical consultation process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the medical student experience of Teddy Bear Hospital as part of a paediatric curriculum. Methods:We conducted a qualitative observational study using observations and focus group interviews with third-year postgraduate medical students. Strategies for engaging children and medical student behaviours were observed. In focus groups, students discussed their experience and the benefits of involvement they perceive. Inductive content analysis was performed, guided by a phenomenological approach, to identify themes.Results: Three major themes were identified: student discomfort, adapting communication to child temperament and developmental age and how the Teddy Bear Hospital context impacts learning. Students experienced discomfort approaching families and through disclosure of medical information. Despite this, students described it as an enjoyable learning experience that taught them to adapt communication to the child. Students also recognised greater challenges in a hospital-based event than one in the community.

“Teddy Bear Hospital Project” school visits improve pre-clerkship students’ comfort explaining medical concepts to children

“…1,2 Previous qualitative studies suggest that TBHP increases volunteers' comfort interacting with children, prepares children for uncomfortable procedures, and improves history-taking from pediatric patients. 3,4 However, no study has demonstrated its effect on volunteers' comfort communicating medical concepts to children, an important skill to acquire for students hoping to pursue a career with a large proportion of pediatric patients (i.e. family medicine or pediatrics).…”

Directed Medical Role Play for Children: Review of the Teddy Bear Hospital Implementations, Objectives, and Reported Experiences

“…In addition, one of the studies claims that some children were not as attentive during lectures or information as far as conveying medical information [21]. This only proves that the health care students who participate in this program should work on their communication skills, especially when it comes to verbalizing patient data to children aged 4-12 years old, as their mindset cannot yet comprehend the numerous ramifications lying within it [15].…”

“…It is evident that regardless of the different approaches and strategies used to implement the Teddy Bear Hospital, they all ultimately share the same intent: to raise health care awareness and alleviate young children's anxiety over medical treatment while focusing on the promotion of positive healthy lifestyle. Of the 11 included studies, 2 were quasi-experimental pre/post design [13], [16], 1 scoping systematic review [17], 2 were Analysis of variance ANOVA [7], [19], 1 control group trials [8] and the remainder were qualitative research studies [11], [12], [14], [15], [18].…”

“…All studies portray the teddy bear hospital as an intervention of medical roleplay. They took place place between the years 2008 to 2021, where two of the studies were in Canada (Ontario and London, ON) [14], [16], two in Malaysia [17], [18], two in Israel/ Palestine [8], [11], one in Norway [12], one in Germany [13], one in the Netherlands [7] and lastly, two in Australia [15], [19] as displayed in Figure 3, which predominantly involved either medical or veterinary students or researchers that dedicated their time and effort to improve on the effectiveness of medical roleplay through The Teddy Bear Hospital.…”

Developing as health professionals through community volunteering: exploring the value of a partnership between medical students and primary schools online compared to in-person

“…Teddy Bear Hospital (TBH) is a university student-led volunteering group present in many universities and medical schools internationally [1][2][3][4][5]. It utilises play to promote healthy living among primary school children (aged 5 to 7 years) and reduce their anxiety surrounding hospitals and healthcare professionals [6].…”