Volunteers and their Work with the Patients and Employees of the Pediatric Division

Treatment of patients of the pediatric division of our Center is not only pre- and post-operational care but also significant support to the parents and their children from the employees of the Center and also from our friends, volunteers, hospital clowns. Hospital clown is a guide of a game though which the patients get good emotions and vivid impressions that are very important for our little patients and their parents.

The clowns regularly have been visiting the pediatric neurosurgical division for many years already. The Chief Nurse of the division, Galina M.Menyaikina is in close collaboration with the volunteers.

“… They [hospital clowns] find individual approach to every mother, to every child of any age. That is no small feat. And our activities do not seem very hard. Post-operational patients always feel pain; there is a high risk of severe depression, infant restraint, fear of the world around including the fear of “white coats”. The clowns help both adults and children if not only overcome these psychological fears very quickly but to neutralize them. It goes without saying that positive moments that fill the creativity of the clowns, help recovering processes. A lot of little patients of our division face their diseases unexpectedly. It’s a shock either for adults or for children. And it is very important to help them return to their normal lives. We even visited intensive care wards together with the clowns, - says Galina. – There are times when children stay in the intensive care ward for a long time. The intensivists themselves acknowledge that such visits are very important for little patients. The clowns haven’t visited us practically for 2 years due to pandemia and we felt shorthanded. They didn’t stop their activities during coronavirus times. They performed their shows under the hospital windows. Our little patients were waiting for them impatiently”.