Play In Hospital Week aims to raise awareness of the benefits of play in the treatment of poorly children across the UK. It is organised by the National Association of Health Play Specialists (NAHPS), which aims to promote and ensure the provision of appropriate therapeutic and stimulating play facilities in hospital and Starlight Children’s Foundation, which brightens the lives of over half a million poorly children in the UK each year.
Play in Hospital Week 2014:
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Oxford Hospitals play team on their sponsored walk
Two of the Play specialists Grace Midwinter and Sam Mortlock, wore their crayon outfit whilst working on their ward for the day! They also held a cake sale and tombola to raise awareness of the role and placed display boards throughout all of their working areas.
PIHW AT the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich
The team kicked off their play week with the wonderful Gordon the magic man, he went from room to room on the oncology unit and then entertained all the children in the playroom, lots of fun and laughter, it was followed up with a film show of Shrek.
On the second day of play week they had a great time thanks to Starlight. The team had a morning with the children decorating cakes biscuits and making choc. krispies cakes - the children again had lots of fun. We made tea and coffee with cakes for all the parents, carers and staff who all joined in. Lots of noise, mess, laughter but most of all fun which also gave the children a little time to forget why they were in hospital.
Jenny Griffiths
Senior Hospital Play Specialist
Play in Hospital Week 2013:
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
Play specialists at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust celebrated a very special milestone during National Play in Hospital Week.
This year’s National Association of Health Play Specialists (NAHPS) National Play in Hospital Week is commemorating 50 years since the first ever hospital play staff were employed by the Brook Hospital in London.
The team of play specialists made the occasion extra special for their patients and created a display in the hospital concourse from photos taken over the years.
Hospital play specialists work alongside doctors and nurses to welcome children and young people to hospital and prepare them to cope with surgery or other procedures using play and distraction items.
Hospital play specialist Christine Goodwin said: “It can be a daunting time for children and young people coming into hospital. They are at their most vulnerable when they are poorly and away from their familiar surroundings at home.
“We help take away their worries by using distraction techniques and reassure them that we don’t carry out nursing duties and that we’re here to make their stay in hospital as comfortable as possible.
“We encourage our patients to keep up their usual interests while they are in hospital. We have arts and crafts, books, games and a room especially for teenagers with a TV, sofa and the latest video games and music, which we’re continuing to improve thanks to very generous donations from children and their families. If children are too poorly to go into the play areas, we take play to their bedside.
“During the year we often bring the children extra treats and surprises. We bring pantomimes and magicians to the children’s ward to keep the children entertained. We’re really grateful to organisations such as Starlight Children’s Foundation, who regularly help us keep our patient entertained and take away their worries with their fantastic shows.”
Ward manager Vicki Whitfield said: “We’ve got a great team of play specialists and we all work really well together as a team. They do a fantastic job helping and supporting children through what can be a worrying time. They really do improve the stay in hospital for our young patients and the parents and carers really appreciate their hard work too.”
Pictured left – right: Ward manager Vicki Whitfield, staff nurse Zoe Musgrave, hospital play specialists Clare Wise, Sandra Jackson, Christine Goodwin, Lynn Dowson and student nurse Kayley Musgrave.
Two year old Harry Charlton enjoys the arts and crafts with hospital play specialist Christine Goodwin and dad Gary Charlton.
The Royal Brompton Hospital
The Royal Brompton Hospital celebrated 50 of Years of Play' in style with a fun packed week of Parties, cake making, movie nights and a range of activities involving all our patients, age ranging from 0-16 years.
All Paediatric staff got involved led by The Play Team and all the celebrations highlighted the amazing Play Opportunities that our children have access to.
Laura Skinner
Senior Play Specialist
Royal Brompton Hospital
Darent Valley Hospital
We had a fantastic Play in Hospital Week. We put a large wall display up promoting play, going back to when it all started. People were genuinely interested the fact the first play leader first started in the Brooke Hospital which is very close to us here at Darent Valley Hospital.
First part of the week we had set up arts and crafts for children of all ages to participate in drawing their Nurse or Doctor. We had some very interesting characters appearing, as you can see from the photo's one of Paediatric Consultants was comparing himself to a portrait of himself designed by one of our patients. I also put play in hospital activity pack together for children of different ages and abilities.
Wednesday we had pet therapy, Pippa the cava-poo ( cavalier king charles cross with a poodle) with her owner Lyn, they spent just over 2 hours with the children, parents / carers and staff. She was loved by all. The children absolutely adored her. Lyn gave out many photo’s of Pippa for children to take into their schools.
Parents and grandparents spoke about their time when they were in hospital as children. Our patients were horrified to find their grandparents did not have toys and their parents were not allowed to stay overnight with them. It was great hearing their stories of time gone by.
Thursday and Friday we had cake decorating and monster marshmallow making, this incorporated the Halloween theme to it. This was great fun, messy but great fun.
The Play Team
Darent Valley Hospital
Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust
Kent
The Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow
At The Royal Hospital for Sick Children Glasgow our exciting week of events started on Monday 8th October with the launch of two competitions, a children’s colouring competition incorporating three age groups and a staff treasure hunt where the staff had to find words associated with hospital play hidden around the various departments then use three of them to make a sentence describing the benefits of play for sick children. There were various displays promoting play in hospital and archive pictures showing how things have changed over 50 years
We had a week of fun filled events ahead for inpatients, outpatients, siblings and visiting children to enjoy. There was a variety of activities at bedsides and in playrooms including Glitter tattoos and a bead making workshop. Children’s characters visited the children daily including Hello kitty, Spiderman, Rapunzel and many more as well the cast members from River City bringing great joy and excitement to the children and their families throughout the hospital. Magicians Peter Merlin and Terry Rooney amazed the children with their fantastic assortment of magic tricks. Our medicinema was the location for a group of musical theatre actors to entertain with singing, dancing and puppetry as well as Goldstar cheerleaders who performed for the children and taught them some cheerleading techniques. In contrast to this we calmed things down with yoga sessions where children and families took the opportunity to relax and de-stress. All of these events were a fantastic success offering great delight in addition to providing an escape from the hospital environment for a short time. Meanwhile, an outbreak of teddy flu meant an emergency teddy clinic had to be set up with children bringing their much loved bears for a check up from our specialist teddy doctor and nurse. Some blood samples were taken and Flu vaccines given and nurse bandaged some sore paws due to a sharp rise in accidents from teddies jumping on beds. The children were sent away with a care plan including bed rest, time off teddy nursery and a prescription for kisses and hugs.
The week finished with the announcement of the winners of the competitions which was judged by our minister Jim Meighan. The competitions were well received and the standard was particularly high. The winning staff member highlighted the significance of the week in this statement: “Play in hospital is important because it provides outlets for feelings of fear, anxiety and frustration and in doing so it raises coping methods between children, their parents and staff during medical procedures”.
Joanne Feeney
Health Play specialist
RHSC GlasgowRoyal Aberdeen Childrens Hospital
Play Service
‘A Celebration of Play’
As always National Play in Hospital week created a huge buzz among the Play Team, after lots of brain storming, designing and organising we were all ready to get our message out there. ‘Look How Far We have Come’. The week started off with a hectic visit from a local school. Each ward and department had informative displays promoting the Importance of Play and the role of the Play Staff. One of our main aims of this week was to really engage staff and reinforce the contribution that play staff make to the team. So staff were encouraged to join us by entering competitions, trying our messy play activities and learning about some of the new things play staff were responsible for introducing to aid families journeys. Families supported the team by joining in the celebrations; they enjoyed our teddy bears picnic, messy activities, sensory sessions and all the other activities that went on during the week. All the starlight resources were well used and very well received by the children. To mark the end of the week we held an open day for staff members, which was pack filled with displays, photos and examples of what the Play Service had done through the years. There was lots of laughter at old photos (in particular at some of the play staff hair do’s) but there was genuine wonder and admiration from staff on how the Play Service had developed but it was also a great way to raise the spirits of all the staff and a fantastic reminder of what can be achieved when we all ‘Play’.
Heather Beattie
Play Service Manager
Royal Aberdeen Childrens Hospital
Play In Hospital Week 2012
“Harry Hill gets to the art of the matter”
Comedian judges National Play in Hospital Week Art Competition
Best known for bringing laughter wherever he goes, comedian and TV presenter Harry Hill has been spreading some cheer to very poorly children as part of the launch of this year’s National Play in Hospital Week.
The week-long initiative, was celebrated between 8th and 14th October in 2012.
Harry kindly agreed to support National Play in Hospital Week and the comedian was invited to University College Hospital, London to judge the Art Competition. From the hundreds of entries, Harry picked out a winner for each of the seven allocated regions, London, The Midlands, The North, The South, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and an overall national winner.
Online children’s toy shop “Letterbox” generously provided exciting toys and games as prizes for each of the regional winners, the national winner and the national winner’s hospital. In addition, the national winner’s drawing will be used on all marketing and publicity materials used to advertise National Play in Hospital Week.
After the judging, Harry Hill commented, "It was a great honour to be asked to judge the National Play in Hospital Week Art Competition with Starlight and NAHPS and to meet some of the young patients at University College Hospital, London.
“There were some great entries from across the UK and it was fascinating to see how each child had depicted the way in which play helps them when they are in hospital. Although they were all very different, each entry clearly showed that, whether it’s cuddling a teddy, blowing bubbles, or simply having a giggle, play really helps poorly children to cope with their pain and anxiety when in hospital."
Irene O’Donnell, Play Services Manager at UCLH and Vice Chair of NAHPS, added “We were delighted that Harry agreed to judge the competition for us as the children really enjoyed taking part and sharing their views of play in hospital. We know that good quality play and recreation opportunities can enhance mental health and the importance of children and young people’s emotional and psychological health is also recognized as having an impact on their physical health.” 
Drumroll please!
The winners of the National Play in Hospital Week Art Competition are as follows:
National Winner (and regional winner of The Midlands)
7 year old Chloe Jones, Kettering General Hospital
Regional Winners
London 12 year old Poppy Teare, University College Hospital, London
The South
5 year old Talitha Bisson, Jersey General Hospital
The North
12 year old Hannah Whitaker, Leeds Children’s Hospital
Northern Ireland
5 year old Shay Patterson, Altnagelvin Area Hospital
Scotland
14 year old Alexandra Kane, Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital
Wales
17 year old Amy Claire Davies, Morriston Hospital
About National Association of Health Play Specialists
The object of NAHPS is to promote the physical and mental well being of children and young people who are patients in hospital, hospice or receiving medical care at home. The charity aims to promote and to ensure the provision of appropriate therapeutic and stimulating play facilities in hospital. NAHPS provides professional support for all hospital play staff.
About Starlight Children’s Foundation
Starlight grants once-in-a-lifetime wishes for seriously and terminally ill children, restoring the magic and fun of childhood and giving the whole family happy memories to share, whatever the future holds.
It also creates entertainment in every hospital and hospice throughout the UK. Sick children go to Starlight parties, laugh their way through pantomimes, go out on Starlight Escapes, play games and watch films on the Starlight Fun Centre, and enjoy the toys and puzzles of the Starlight Distraction Box. Happy children respond better to treatment and Starlight helps children to forget about their illness and simply have a bit of fun.
www.starlight.org.uk
