Spring Break
ECU Medical Students launch SurgiKids Program
Brittani McNeill
Issue date: 2/24/09 Section: News
A new class aimed at making surgery less scary for children has been introduced at ECU. Brandon Yarns and Nancy Shinouda, second year medical students at the Brody School of Medicine, launched the SurgiKids program last August,
The class is open to all children coming into the SurgiCenter to have surgery. The purpose is to show children what they can expect during surgery, in hopes of reducing their anxiety about the procedures.
The class is held each week on Thursday evenings. Yarns and Shinouda obtain a list of patients from the SurgiCenter each week, and invite them to the class. It consists of a classroom session and a tour. During the classroom session, the children are introduced to some of the things that they will see and experience during surgery, such as hospital gowns and stethoscopes.
"We allow the children to kind of play with some of the things they'll see when they come on for surgery," said Yarn. "We try to familiarize them and make sure they're not scared and nervous about the surgery."
"I think it helps them a lot," said Shinouda. "It kind of desensitizes them to a lot of equipment so when they see it again it's something that they've seen before and it's not so scary."
Yarns and Shinouda were awarded a North Carolina Schweitzer Fellowship to start the class. The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in the United States to support Dr. Schweitzer's medical work in Africa during World War II. In 1991, the Fellowship launched its U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs, through which students in health professions and related fields carry out direct service projects in underserved communities in the U.S.
North Carolina is one of 11 regions in the U.S. to carry U.S. Schweitzer Fellowship Programs, and there are only 271 Schweitzer fellows in the state.
Yarns came across the idea while working with a similar class and tour while completing his undergraduate studies at Arizona State University.
"When I came here I was interested in starting a program like [the one in Arizona] here, because that kind of program didn't exist at the SurgiCenter," Yarns said. "So we applied for the fellowship and they helped us make the connections that we needed."
The class is open to all children coming into the SurgiCenter to have surgery. The purpose is to show children what they can expect during surgery, in hopes of reducing their anxiety about the procedures.
The class is held each week on Thursday evenings. Yarns and Shinouda obtain a list of patients from the SurgiCenter each week, and invite them to the class. It consists of a classroom session and a tour. During the classroom session, the children are introduced to some of the things that they will see and experience during surgery, such as hospital gowns and stethoscopes.
"We allow the children to kind of play with some of the things they'll see when they come on for surgery," said Yarn. "We try to familiarize them and make sure they're not scared and nervous about the surgery."
"I think it helps them a lot," said Shinouda. "It kind of desensitizes them to a lot of equipment so when they see it again it's something that they've seen before and it's not so scary."
Yarns and Shinouda were awarded a North Carolina Schweitzer Fellowship to start the class. The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in the United States to support Dr. Schweitzer's medical work in Africa during World War II. In 1991, the Fellowship launched its U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs, through which students in health professions and related fields carry out direct service projects in underserved communities in the U.S.
North Carolina is one of 11 regions in the U.S. to carry U.S. Schweitzer Fellowship Programs, and there are only 271 Schweitzer fellows in the state.
Yarns came across the idea while working with a similar class and tour while completing his undergraduate studies at Arizona State University.
"When I came here I was interested in starting a program like [the one in Arizona] here, because that kind of program didn't exist at the SurgiCenter," Yarns said. "So we applied for the fellowship and they helped us make the connections that we needed."
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