READING PROGRAM GIVEN TO HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN

Diving for pennies at the public pool or climbing oak trees with a friend are favorite summertime activities for children. But a hospital stay from an illness or injury can put a child's summer activities on hold.

Although most pediatric patients are admitted for only a few days, those children may still feel a barrage of emotions. They may feel anxious about staying in unfamiliar surroundings, or they may feel lonely because they are separated from their families. Sometimes children worry about what will happen to them because of their illness or injury and they may also feel bored.

Story Time, a reading program sponsored by Community Counseling Center in cooperation with St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital, entertains pediatric patients and offers them emotional support during the healing process.

During a bedside story, children can forget their worries for a while as they listen to a tale of a storybook character.

Mati Stone, clinical director of the Community Counseling Center, said: "The program provides children a diversion from the stress they may feel by being in a hospital. The program also provides children with a constructive way of thinking about life's issues such as being ill, having worries or getting along with strangers."

In July and August, trained Story Time volunteers will visit pediatric patients at both Cape Girardeau hospitals and will read specially chosen books to children in their hospital room.

Southeast Missouri Hospital pediatrics' nurse manager Connie Peiffer said: "As part of the healing process, Story Time is just making it a less fearful experience so children can relax and develop trust. When there is that trust and a decrease in fear, it makes the whole experience go better and, in turn, the healing go better.

"I think the program will serve both as a diversion for the patients and a time of learning and companionship for those times of being alone and not feeling so isolated and `by myself.'"

Amy Dunning, St. Francis Medical Center's pediatric patient care manager, said, "I feel this program gives the children an opportunity to have individualized attention and diversionary activity that may not be available in the routine of a hospital day."

Junior volunteers at each hospital will serve as Story Time readers. At St. Francis Medical Center some adult volunteer tutors will also be available for reading time. The tutorial program is an ongoing service for pediatric patients during school terms.

Bonnie Perdue, director of volunteers at St. Francis Medical Center, said: "We feel that Story Time has added a dimension to our tutorial service. Also, it will be an excellent way for volunteers to respond to patients' needs and to create another one-on-one exchange between our volunteers and our patients."

Each Story Time volunteer will participate in a training session by child therapists at Community Counseling Center. Therapists will orient volunteers to the program and will share techniques with them for reading to children who may seem sad, bored or anxious.

Charlotte Sargent, director of volunteer services at Southeast Missouri Hospital, said: "Our junior volunteers are very enthusiastic about the program, and I can see Story Time being a benefit for these young people in that it can give them greater awareness of what a patient feels. Pediatrics has always been an area of great interest to our junior volunteers, and this program gives them an opportunity in that area."

After their first Story Time visit, each child will receive a Story Time bookmark to take home with "Bobby the Bookworm" smiling atop a stack of books a memento that helps the child remember that reading can be a fun learning experience.

Bookmarks and other Story Time efforts were coordinated by a public relations class at Southeast Missouri State University last spring.

Students integrated the program into a hospital environment, determined volunteer activities and supplies, developed print material and organized publicity.

Students presented Story Time to officials at Community Counseling Center and the volunteer directors and pediatric care managers of both hospitals.