For Those Who Wait, Good Things

在约翰霍普金斯儿童中心的术前护理室，护士和医生都知道 Josie Connor as the volunteer who plays Red Light, Green Light with kids who zip through the hallways on Little Tikes ride-on cars.

“Green light!” Connor calls out, 当她举起她创造的交通信号灯道具时，她开始了四楼的疯狂冲刺.

A graduate student in Towson University’s child life, administration and family collaboration program, 康纳每周志愿帮助等待医疗程序和手术的儿童. “手术前的平静可能很艰难，对孩子和家人来说可能是漫长的等待,” Connor says. “我的职责是提供支持，并通过有趣的活动来帮助孩子们度过压力和困难的局面.”

Wait times can extend longer than anticipated, and kids can get bored. Nothing makes time pass more quickly than play, and fun, hands-on activities can offer stress relief to those sitting and waiting anxiously. “I’ve convinced a lot of kids, teenagers, 甚至父母和监护人也可以通过让他们的手忙碌起来，用培乐多做一些东西来缓解焦虑,” Connor says.

康纳说，正是那些能调动感官和激发想象力的小东西——像培乐多这样的小东西——在术前护理病房这样的环境中发挥了真正的作用. Coloring books for both children and adults, too, provide opportunities for creative expression and for calm, 当康纳在开着窗帘的房间里走动时，她一定会随身带着一些.

手术前的平静对孩子和家人来说可能是艰难的，感觉像是漫长的等待. 我的职责是提供支持，并利用有趣的活动来帮助孩子们度过压力和困难的局面.

— Josie Connor

当康纳从她的课程毕业并获得儿童生活专家的认证时, part of her job will involve educating kids, teens and their families about diagnoses and treatments, and developing coping plans for those admitted to the hospital. These plans use not only play but also distraction techniques, 呼吸练习和引导想象，以减少恐惧，使推荐十大正规网赌平台的心放松.

“When I go out into my career, 我将带着我在课程中学到的许多基于证据的技术和理论, 以及我在约翰霍普金斯儿童中心通过其他儿童生活专家以及患者和家庭的出色指导学到的一切，我永远不会忘记,” says Connor.

Finding Escape in Video Games

For Adam Boukind, Friday afternoon is the best part of his week. That’s when he plays Mario Kart, Minecraft and other video games with young patients at the Children’s Center.

One of several child life gaming volunteers, Boukind focuses on fun distractions. “Playing video games is escapism for the children,” says Boukind, 他是约翰霍普金斯大学生物医学工程专业的硕士生，计划今年秋天进入医学院学习. “当他们忘记住院这件事时，听到他们的声音里流露出宽慰的神情，没有什么比这更让我高兴的了.”

Whether for a routine procedure or a more complicated medical issue, being a hospital patient can be both tedious and anxiety-producing. Technology and gaming are important ways that children play today, and gaming has become a core component of the child life repertoire. Boukind and the other gaming volunteers work under the direction of Eric Clarkson, who was hired in 2021 to be the first full-time child life gaming specialist.

“Even if I don’t know them at first, I become part of their family. 这是一个非常亲密的空间，我很荣幸能成为他们在医院的旅程的一部分.”

—Adam Boukind

Each Friday after medical rounds, Boukind gets a list from Clarkson of patients who want to play video games. Then, Boukind makes his own rounds, pushing a mobile cart filled with iPads, 虚拟现实耳机和其他最先进的技术项目，可以与任天堂Xbox系列X游戏机一起使用，很快就会进入每个病房-这在很大程度上要归功于儿童游戏慈善机构的慈善事业。A Moment of Normalcy’).

Once the patient has selected a game, 布金德安顿下来，做着他和朋友们在摩洛哥长大时做过的事情:闲逛, laugh and chatter. Then he repeats the process with the next patient on his list.

Working with children is familiar territory for Boukind. As a teenager, he and his father, a reconstructive surgeon, volunteered with Operation Smile, 这家全球非营利组织为先天性唇腭裂儿童提供免费手术. His father also treated children with burn injuries. The work left an impact on Boukind, who wants his medical career to revolve around children and, perhaps, burn care.

布金德说，他觉得最有价值的是与推荐十大正规网赌平台及其家属的联系. “Their resilience is truly inspiring,” he says. “Even if I don’t know them at first, I become part of their family. 这是一个非常亲密的空间，我很荣幸能成为他们在医院的旅程的一部分.”

‘Play Is the Primary Work’

Sometimes, she kneads a mix of glue, baking soda, water and food coloring to help a child concoct slime at a science station. Other times, 她会玩几轮Uno游戏，或者在膝盖上弹跳一个娃娃，假装是“家人”.” Whatever the scenario, Jacquelyn French 她每周在儿童中心工作四小时，主要做一件事:玩耍.

“Play is the primary work of children,” says French, a second-year graduate student working on a master’s degree in child life, administration and family collaboration at Towson University. French once considered pursuing a doctorate in child development, 但她意识到自己是多么享受与孩子们一对一的互动——包括玩耍. “I’m really a hands-on person,” she says. “I enjoy the theory behind the work, but it’s the applied part, and seeing the smiles on kids’ faces, that I like most.”

But French can readily talk theory. “对大多数孩子来说，在医院接受医疗程序是可怕的经历,” she says. “Plus, it’s easy, as a child, 感觉像房间里的成年人——父母和医生——是做决定的人.” Self-assurance, French goes on to explain, comes from having some degree of ownership and autonomy over one’s life. 因此，弗兰奇在每周与孩子们的游戏中加入了选择的元素.

“I’m really a hands-on person. I enjoy the theory behind the work, but it’s the applied part, and seeing the smiles on kids’ faces, that I like most.”

—Jacquelyn French

Instead of saying, “Hey, let’s play X or Y,” French asks the open-ended question: “What would you like to play?” And she lets the child take the lead throughout the entire session. For example, if a patient chooses to paint a tree purple or use LEGOs to make pretend soup, she goes along. “My job is really to nurture and comfort,” she says, 并帮助孩子们逃离或应对他们所处环境的严重性——这一过程被称为“正常化”.”

弗伦奇在约翰·霍普金斯儿童中心的经历再次坚定了她的决心，即致力于帮助孩子们度过难关. 她说，她希望在毕业后找到一份工作，“在一家提供救灾的非营利组织担任儿童生活专家”, 在地震或洪水等灾难发生后，我将被派往哪里.” French would enter the scene with her gentle nature and, likely, a bagful of toys, empowering kids to cope — without forgoing play.

Rocking Babies, Reading Books

Armaan Jamal, 约翰霍普金斯大学医学院的首席研究项目协调员, 他的工作时间是在艾滋病毒阳性人群中探索长冠状病毒的病因和生物标志物. But when 5 p.m. rolls around on a Friday, he shows up, like clockwork, to his four-hour volunteer shift at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, ready to play.

Jamal graduated from The Johns Hopkins University a year early, in 2022, with a bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology, and he is taking a gap year to work and to apply for medical school. 一边是全职的医学工作一边是准备医学院申请的耗时过程, 贾马尔依靠每周在儿童中心和推荐十大正规网赌平台一起玩耍来缓解压力，这提醒了他当初为什么想从医.

“Ever since I shadowed a doctor at a hospital in Kenya, where I grew up, I’ve known I wanted to be a physician who works with children, especially those from low-resource areas,” Jamal says. At the government-run Coast General Hospital in his hometown, Mombasa, on the shores of the Indian Ocean, Jamal witnessed pediatric medical care that left a lasting impression. “I watched surgeries conducted on children in outpatient settings, when they should have been in the OR, and I saw kids undergoing treatments who were all alone and crying,” he says.

“I’ve played Jenga, rocked babies, read books, colored pictures and even let a little girl paint my nails neon green.”

—Armaan Jamal

As a volunteer, Jamal plays board games, offers homework help, and engages in art projects with kids and babies admitted to the Children’s Center. “I’ve played Jenga, rocked babies, read books, colored pictures and even let a little girl paint my nails neon green,” Jamal says, laughing. His favorite thing to play is Call of Duty, a video game in which epic battles unfurl across historical and futuristic worlds.

“One night, I played Call of Duty with a teenage boy and his brother for four hours straight, 一边听着说唱音乐，一边出去玩，玩得开心,” Jamal says. 对姐弟俩来说，这个晚上让他们摆脱了住院的沉重.

另一位推荐十大正规网赌平台的母亲给贾马尔写了一封信，感谢他花了几个小时玩《推荐十大正规网赌平台》和《全球十大外围足球平台》, and for simply being there for her son. “I was touched,” Jamal says, “and I believe no kid deserves to be sick.

“这个职位让我可以回馈那些最脆弱的人，但我也可以再次成为一个孩子.”