To introduce children to the medical professions, medical students have created “The Teddy Bear Hospital”
Treating the leg, operating, or doing an ultrasound to your comforter, this is what medical students from all over France offer with the annual initiative “The Teddy Bear Hospital”, launched twenty years ago. At the gymnasium of the Faculty of Medicine of Marseille, they are more than 500 children, pupils of small and large sections of kindergarten to have participated: “The goal is to introduce them to all the medical and paramedical professions in a fun way“, explains Louis, a medical student and local coordinator of the event.
Discovering the medical professions
During the morning, the children strolled and played through ten stands dedicated to the medical professions, from the midwife to the doctor, including the physiotherapist. A deliberately fun approach, serving to “play down the medical environment and the decor of white coats“says Eve, a medical student.
“The children are super receptive, they love it. They go to the operating room, they give the bottle: it’s important to de-dramatize this environment as soon as possible“rejoices Laëticia, teacher at the Busserine school, who came with around sixty children.
The initiative seems to be bearing fruit. In twenty years, the teachers ensure that they observe a real difference between the hospitalized children who have had access to the initiative, and the others, who keep anxiety.
