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Osler provides highly-specialized care for children ranging from one day of age up to their 18th birthday through our paediatric services. Depending on the child’s needs, we have a team of dedicated experts ready to support the patient and the family with high-quality care delivered with compassion.
Among those experts are child life specialists, who help our youngest patients, and their families, understand and cope with the unknowns of hospital care. We spoke with Sabrina Martinelli, a Child Life Specialist at Brampton Civic Hospital, about the impact her role has on patient care.
What is your role at Osler?
As a child life specialist, I help children and families navigate the process of illness, injury, and hospitalization. My focus is on providing different types of interventions and play therapy to patients to prepare for medical procedures, provide education to reduce fear and anxiety, and promote a positive hospital environment for children. Play is good medicine and knowing that my role focuses on that inspires me to bring my best every day.
How do you support patients and their families who will be spending holidays or celebrations, like birthdays, in hospital?
It’s no secret that the holidays or celebrations can be a challenging time for those who are hospitalized, but with a little bit of creativity it’s possible to bring some cheer into the hospital room.
As a child life specialist, when visiting children who are hospitalized one important step is to talk with them and their families about their feelings; recognizing that things are different is just as important as thinking about some of the most positive parts of a holiday, a birthday or another type of celebration.
We also talk about things that the families normally do at home that we can bring into the hospital such as decorating, cards and gifts. We provide children and families with crafting materials and themed kits as it not only promotes therapeutic play and normalcy within the hospital, but a few decorations can go a long way towards helping a patient feel more comfortable and happier during these special events.
A big component of child life is working to ensure life remains as normal as possible for children in hospitals, and I aim to meet with children and families in paediatric services to understand their individual need and support the best I can.
What does ‘living Osler's Values’ mean to you?
To me, living Osler’s Values means being mindful of my words and actions to ensure I am meeting everyone with kindness and compassion to do my part in creating a safe space for Osler’s youngest patients and families.
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