British Hospital Uses Disney Magic To Make Face-Masks Less Scary For Kids
When you’re a tiny tot, visiting a hospital, can be a bit daunting. Even more so in this age of COVID-19 when staff must cover their faces in order to keep themselves and their patients safe! However, the staff at the children’s Panda Unit at Salford Royal in Manchester have come up with a fun way to make these masks less frightening for kids and it’s with a big dose of Disney magic- of course!
As the Manchester Evening News tells us, frontline staff at the UK hospital are required to wear Personal Protective Equipment. This includes visors and face masks. The paediatric emergency assessment unit was worried about making kids anxious because of the way they looked. So they affixed popular film and cartoon characters to the top of their gear to add a bit of Disney fun.
Below you can see some of the adorable characters including Dumbo, Mickey Mouse, Dory, and the little green aliens from Toy Story.
Rachel Baird matron at the Panda Unit spoke to the Evening News about these awesome Disney upgrades saying, “During this challenging epidemic we are continually developing new ways of communicating with our patients throughout their time spent in the hospital. Staff have created these character visors to reduce anxiety in a PPE-filled clinical area and to offer some extra reassurance to our children amidst a potentially scary environment.”
Nathan Griffiths, consultant nurse and clinical lead on the Panda Unit, said “Being in hospital can be daunting for a young patient at any time but now that we are wearing masks and visors, it can be quite scary for them.” He added, “It’s important that we build a trusting rapport with our patients and the characters on our visors are a fun way to distract them and make them smile.”
So have the Disney-fied masks been a success? You betcha! Rachel concluded, “From greeting patients in triage to assessing and treating them on the unit, these character visors have been welcomed with many smiles, stopped some tears and have brought about some very interesting conversations. The parents and staff quite like them too.”
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Source: Manchester Evening Standard