Monday 20 May 2019 11:26am
Third year student Michael Nichols gets ready to give one of his 'patients' an x-ray.
Medical and dental students involved in the Teddy Bear Hospital are being kept on their toes with hundreds of young pre-school children bringing in their favourite cuddly toy for a check up.
Otago University Medical Students Association (OUSMA) Community Outreach Officer Olivia Brown says they have had about 100 kids coming through the clinic each day.
"Both the students and kids alike are loving the experience. It is awesome to see the kids laughing and engaging with the teddy doctors and dentists and coming out of their shell. We have definitely had positive feedback from teachers, parents, kids and students," she says.
"Hospitals, dental surgeries and medical centres can cause anxiety for children. So the aim of Teddy Bear Hospital is to create a positive and fun experience for them, to remove some of the uncertainty and confusion children can experience when visiting the doctor or dentist."
For the children, taking their cuddly toy to see a teddy doctor or dentist helps them become more used to medical equipment and tests such as taking blood pressure, looking in teddy’s eyes and ears, checking their teeth, and listening to their ‘heartbeat’.
"This is also a great learning opportunity for medical and dental students to interact with young children, which is something not all students have experience with," says Olivia.
The daily clinic-style sessions have finished but a Community Day, featuring a range of additional activities, will be held on Saturday 18 May at the Hunter Centre (10am-2pm), which is always very popular with families.
It is the eighth year this free initiative has been run by the medical and dental students. About 200 medical students and up to 30 dentistry students will be involved with upward of 400 children expected.