Program aims to take sting out of shots
<p>Jennifer Hock checks a vein in the arm of Matthew Hock as St. John’s Lutheran Hospital implements the Treasure Chest idea for children. </p>
St. John’s Laboratory is implementing a practice aimed at making some of its patients just a tiny bit happier. The targeted patients are local children.
The hospital knows no one really likes needles, and it is very common for anybody to develop anxiety when they have to give a blood sample. But this experience can be even more difficult for children, and the collection technique can have a major impact on how young people handle blood collection, and needles, in general, for the rest of their lives.
Recognizing the need to make this experience a little less scary for children, Chuck Braun and Jennifer Hock, laboratory technologists at St. John’s, spearheaded an effort to make changes in protocol that are currently underway.
Arrangements have been made to utilize consultation from a licensed child life specialist who specializes in pediatric blood sample collections to facilitate the training of all St. John’s Laboratory personnel in pediatric blood collection.
However, Hock, the mother of two, felt that all of this new training still wasn’t enough. She knew that something more needed to be done to put a finishing touch on children’s experience and help them walk out the door happy.
That’s what inspired her to develop the Treasure Chest. This special chest holds an array of goodies that are waiting to be retrieved by the excited and happy little hands of children who visit the Lab.
Braun and Hock, encouraged by the entire St. John’s laboratory department, have made it their own personal mission to ensure that every child’s experience in their department is as fear-free and happy as possible, and that none of them leaves empty handed.