Child Life Intern Revamps 

Hospital’s Pre-op Program For Kids

ROME – The sights and sounds of a hospital can be a frightening experience for a child who is sick or injured. To help calm those fears, Rome Memorial Hospital offers a preoperative program for elementary school children to familiarize them with the hospital.

Over the summer, a child life intern from Utica College updated the program for the beginning of the new school year. Working with Marilyn Palinski, R.N., the hospital’s coordinator of the children’s preoperative program, Ashley Vergalito wrote a new script, took photographs, and recreated the audio-video portion of the program as a Power Point presentation.

"I’ve been using the same film for the last 10 years. It was time to rejuvenate the presentation," Palinski said. "Ashley did a wonderful job putting together a presentation that would appeal to children. She was careful to use language that would be easy to understand and included photographs of common medical equipment."

The Power Point presentation follows a 10-year-old boy with a broken arm through the hospital. Vergalito explains what is happening through the entire process from diagnosis to discharge. She acknowledges that some things like blood tests will "hurt a little bit, like a pinch."

"Although Ashley has completed only two years of her training as a child life specialist, she clearly understands children," said Palinski. "I think the kids will enjoy the updated program."

Palinski presents the preoperative program to approximately 10 elementary classes each year. "The hands-on activities are the children’s favorite part of the program. They dress up in operating room gowns and get to touch the medical equipment," she explained. "They also like my two large friendly-looking dolls. Beneath the velcro on their cloth skin are models of internal organs so the kids can get an idea of how their bodies look inside."

Vergalito, a 1999 graduate of Rome Free Academy, is studying to become a child life specialist. Child life specialists are common in large children’s hospital’s. They help reduce the stress faced by sick children and promote normal growth and development.

Vergalito’s said her interest in the field was confirmed while she was a high school senior participating in the Madison Oneida BOCES Allied Health Partnership Program. The program’s seniors spend a year at Rome Memorial Hospital getting a behind the scenes look at various healthcare careers. Because of her specialized interest, the Education Department made arrangements for her to spend two weeks with a child life specialist at another facility.

When she needed an internship this summer, she returned to Rome Memorial Hospital to see what was available. In addition to revamping the preoperative program, Vergalito participated in the Safe & Healthy for Summer health fair for children, assisted staff with the hospital’s "Smoking Is Not Cool Program" and worked with some of the hospital’s pediatric patients to help reduce their anxiety.

"It’s satisfying helping kids feel like kids," Vergalito said. "When children are battling disease, their parents, doctors and nurses typically treat them like they are sick. Child life specialists help children be children and help those around them remember that the patient is a child first."

Schools that would like to schedule the preoperative program for their students may call the hospital’s Education Department at 338-7062.