Events
VII Edition of the Little Ones’ Hospital at the Lisbon Medical Faculty
The Lisbon Medical Faculty Students’ Association (AEFML) once again organized the Little Ones’ Hospital, between the 9th and 13th of December 2008, in the Egas Moniz Building of the FMUL, on the premises of the Santa Maria Hospital.
This edition included a joint collaboration among students of Nursing, Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Nutrition, who, through their respective student associations, made it possible for about 800 children to be received in the event.
The aim of this project is to use a role play game in order to reduce the anxiety that children feel when they are confronted with the presence of a health professional, and at the same time to provide learning activity about basic notions of health. On the other hand, the aim is for future health professionals to use their knowledge in a playful teaching environment adapted to their ages to teach children to lose their fear of the “white coat”.
The course that each child travelled in the Little Ones’ Hospital was the following: Waiting Room (where some teaching games were prepared), Triage (the patients, who are the dolls that the children brought along, receive a coloured ribbon according to the seriousness of the situation and also an identification card, which is stamped at each stop off point), Consultation (a doctor analyses the doll’s situation, performs an objective examination and refers the doll to: Analyses (where the taking of a blood sample is simulated), Radiology (simulation of a radiography of the doll) and Surgery (where they simulate washing hands, they put on a surgical gown and simulate surgery on their doll). Then there is the Treatment Room (where the doll has its bandage changed), the Pharmacy, the Dental Consultation and Nutrition Consultation. After this journey each child received a certificate of participation, a bag with a snack and a set of presents and food offered to the schools to be distributed to the children later on.
![Fotografias do Hospital dos Pequeninos 2009](http://news.medicina.ulisboa.pt/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/pequenos2.jpg)
Response capacity was 50 children per hour, in joint and sequential work by the about 350 collaborators enrolled in the activity over the whole week of the event.
Despite the complexity of the organization of this project, the Organizing Committee, thanks to this teamwork, managed once again to bring the project to fruition, the preparation of which started two months previously and involved forming several different working teams: Sponsorship, Bureaucracies, External Relations, Contacts with Schools, Treasury and Decoration.
In order for everything to be ready on time, the assembly of the space took two days, which were well compensated by the positive effect that the space had on all its visitors, with colour, life and art, faithfully simulating a hospital environment, befitting a project of this nature.
Translated into numbers, the logistics of this project involved the emitting of about 800 participation certificates, 350 collaboration certificates, the giving of 800 individual snack packs (each pack contained a juice, a bottle of water, fruit or yoghourt, a chocolate bar, a cake, a didactic DVD, a cereal bar, a fresh cheese and several lollipops). Further foodstuffs were given to the schools, as well as teaching materials for the children. Various items of medical equipment was also used for the several activities, as well as decorative material, which turned the space into a veritable Little Ones’ Hospital.
Due to the extent of the event, it was only possible with the collaboration of several different entities which kindly sponsored the project. These are: BPI, Grupo Sonae, Instituto Becel, El Corte Inglés, Maquiserviço, Babybel, Onspot, Nestlé, Ioplis, Dan Cake, Ramazzotti, Manuel Duarte Cruz (Frutas), Toys R Us, 3M, Speculum, Porto Editora, Águas das Caldas de Penacova, Águas Serra da Estrela and he Lisbon North Hospital Centre (Santa Maria Hospital), to whom the Organizing Committee owes its thanks.
The event also had the collaboration of the media, who were forthcoming in publicising the project in order to make it known to the general public and for people to enjoy everything that the Little Ones’ Hospital had to offer them.
This project represents a valuable moment for the AEFML and for all the collaborating student associations, as well as for all the students who took part in it, not only due to its didactic nature, but also due to its solidarity, given the time of year when it takes place.
The aim for 2009 is to equal this year’s event or even do better, with some schools having shown a desire to come back to the Little Ones’ Hospital for its next edition.
![Fotografias do Hospital dos Pequeninos 2009](http://news.medicina.ulisboa.pt/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/pequenos3.jpg)
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