CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26855, 7 October 1952, Page 2

CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL

EVENING VISITS BY PARENTS SUCCESS CLAIMED FOR EXPERIMENT (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 29. After a four months’ trial, one children’s hospital in Nottingham • has found that nightly visits from parents of small patients help children to recover from their illnesses by making them contented. In most hospitals, firequent visits by . parents are discouraged as they are said to upset the children and interfere with the routine of children’s wards. “Evening visits by parents who tell their children bedtime stories and tuck them in are the best medicine we have ever had for our small patients,” said the chairman of the Nottingham Hosoital Committee, Mr F. Pragnell, revealing his board’s break with usual hospital practice. “The scheme has been a tremendous success and we intend to keep on with it.” Mr Pragnell said the system of nightly visits by two relatives was suggested to his board by the matrons of the Nottingham City Hospital and the Nottingham Children’s Hospital. At first parents tried to bring in extra visitors and they also brought sweets and foods unsuitable for the children, but the difficulties were overcome and the parents co-operated in the scheme.

Although hospital staffs had always tried to do everything possible to make children happy in, hospital, the experience of the last four months had shown that the children undoubtedly fretted less when they saw their parents regularly instead of twice a week, said Mr Pragnell. With only two afternoon visiting periods a week, some very young children became too attached to their nurses and tended to forget to a certain extent their ’'arents and their home surroundings. More frequent visits by parents made the children contented and enabled them to adjust themselves quickly when thev were finally discharged from hospital.