Hospital Classroom Research Articles

Using information and communication technologies in hospital classrooms: SAVEH project

Children suffering a serious illness, experience enormous changes in their daily lives. Not only does the direct consequences of the disease affect the child, but also the fact of being at a hospital, or at home and not being allowed to go to school. Frequently, connections with classmates, neighbors, and sometimes even some with his relatives are lost. Furthermore, the responsibility of the state, to continue his schooling process is much harder, since different communities (family, school teachers, hospital teachers, medical doctors, psychologists…) have to be coordinated. Last but not least, entertainment and enjoyment should be provided to avoid boredom and to improve their affective state. At the same time, with the development of Information and Communication Technologies, a large number of solutions have arisen that allow people to enhance their communication, education and entertainment possibilities. These technologies seem perfectly suitable to be used to tackle the problems described above. In this article, some of the special necessities of children suffering from a serious illness are pointed out, technologies available to be facilitated are described and some initiatives taking place in Spain mentioned. The SAVEH project will be described in detail.

BIOFEEDBACK EVIDENCE OF SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH BENEFITS PROVIDED BY PLANTS AND FLOWERS IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

Biomedical instrument advancements have made it possible to record and understand human responses to plants in urban environments. Biofeedback is an experimental method used to measure stress by monitoring blood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature, muscle tension, and electro-dermal responses. Initial biofeedback research at KSU involved measuring finger tip temperature responses to interior plants while subjects listened to a relaxation tape. Within five minutes, subjects near a live plant had increased skin temperature and lower stress, while those looking at a photograph of the same plant were less responsive, and minimal change occurred in the same room with no plants. Another group of subjects, walking through a botanical garden had significantly lowered heart rate and blood pressure. Stress reduction occurred and fast beta brain waves increased for subjects in a room with red flowering geraniums as compared to responses in a room with green foliage or in an empty room. For groups of students who were gardening, within 40 minutes, significant changes in immunoglobulin A and cortisol occurred, as compared to those who were not gardening. This resulted in fewer colds and respiratory problems reported by the gardening group. Other KSU research has measured social interaction, stress, and pain perception to fragrance, color, and plant density within hospital rooms, classrooms, and landscape gardens.

Impact of educational video in health education. The case of hospital classrooms

espanolLas aulas hospitalarias constituyen una de las areas mas interesantes del ambito de la educacion de la poblacion en los habitos de vida saludables. Estas aulas persiguen un doble objetivo: ofrecer al paciente pediatrico la informacion necesaria para mejorar su estado de salud, y garantizarle una escolarizacion regular durante su estancia en el hospital. Una de las herramientas educativas mas utiles en estas aulas es el video educativo, el cual, estimula el aprendizaje y mejora el estado psicologico del paciente. El caracter ludico y el espiritu participativo de esta herramienta permiten afirmar que la alfabetizacion audiovisual aplicada al ambito de las aulas hospitalarias aporta beneficios al paciente, al familiar del paciente y a los profesionales del hospital. EnglishHospital classrooms are one of the most interesting areas of the population’s education field in healthy living habits. These classrooms seek a double goal: provide to the paediatric patient the information needed to improve his health, and ensure him a regular schooling during his stay in the hospital. One of the most useful education tools in these classrooms is the educational video, which stimulates learning and improves the patient’s psychological health. The playful character and participatory spirit of this tool allow to say that audiovisual literacy applied to the hospital classrooms field bring benefits to the patient, the patient’s family and hospital professionals.

Educational services for hospitalized children

Illness and hospitalization lead to loss of school days and education for some children. This issue has been addressed in published literature for more than three decades (1). Regular school attendance and swift school re-entry are considered to be important mechanisms for helping children cope with hospitalization and the management of their illness (2,3). Helping children stay connected with regular academic and social activities has been shown to reduce difficulties during school re-entry (4). Access to a teacher and being able to continue school within the hospital provides children with a sense of normalcy during the hospital stay. However, evaluating these educational services for children in Canadian hospitals seems less obvious compared with our counterparts in other countries, some of whom use Canadian educational researchers to assess hospital-based educational services (5,6). In an attempt to accommodate the educational needs of children and young people in hospitals, many paediatric hospitals have teachers who provide one-on-one teaching either in a hospital classroom or at the bedside of children who are hospitalized for extended periods. The involvement of a teacher in a patient’s total care enhances the student’s learning potential while ill, and facilitates a smoother return to school. Sometimes, the teacher’s responsibility may include course selection or rearranging timetables, work completion, test or examination proctoring, and/or initiating an Identification, Placement, and Review Committee if the illness has affected the patient’s learning abilities. By providing this liaison work, the hospital teacher can facilitate the school program at a time when the parents are possibly very preoccupied with workplace demands and other children at home, in addition to caring for a sick hospitalized child. We hypothesized that the information on educational services available to hospitalized children was not uniform across Canada, and that the information on these services was not easily accessible. We wanted to assess educational service information available to inpatient or outpatient children in Canadian paediatric hospitals that are accessible on the Internet.

Education: A child's right and our responsibility

Education: A child's right and our responsibility

Marital Interactions in the Process of Dietary Change for Type 2 Diabetes

Objective To explore how couples adjust to dietary management of type 2 diabetes. Design Couples were interviewed, first together and then separately, during the first year after diagnosis and 1 year later. Setting Qualitative interviews conducted in hospital classrooms using a semistructured interview guide. Participants Couples (N = 20) with a recently diagnosed spouse who met the study criteria were purposefully selected from volunteers solicited from hospital-based diabetes classes. Phenomenon of Interest Processes used by the couple to address the prescribed diet. Analysis Thematic analysis of interview transcripts using grounded theory to identify patterns of adaptation processes used over time. Results Three couple categories emerged (cohesive, enmeshed, and disengaged), representing adaptation to the diabetic diet. Initially, 5 couples were cohesive (teamwork approach), 7 were enmeshed (nondiabetic spouse responsible for the diet; spouse was dependent), and 8 were disengaged (spouses functionally separate; spouse was solely responsible for the diet management). A year later, the majority of couples were disengaged (n = 14), 1 couple remained cohesive, and 4 couples remained enmeshed. Themes of flexibility, roles, rules, and communication varied across categories. Conclusions and Implications Understanding categories of marital adjustment to the diabetic diet may improve nutrition-based diabetes interventions. Further study is needed to verify these findings in larger and more diverse populations.

Classe hospitalar: aspectos da relação professor-aluno em sala de aula de um hospital

A classes hospitalares foram criadas para assegurar a continuidade dos conteúdos escolares a crianças e adolescentes hospitalizados, possibilitando um retorno sem prejuízo à escola de origem após a alta. Através de sessões de observação direta das interações professor-aluno em sala de aula da classe hospitalar, pode-se observar que as atividades mais freqüentes do professor foram explicar tarefas e fazer perguntas aos alunos, sendo praticamente nula a ocorrência de comportamentos que priorizassem as particularidades de cada um deles. Com relação aos alunos, verifica-se um índice elevado de comportamentos acadêmicos, independente do número de observações ou do quadro clínico de cada um. Em última análise, discute-se o comportamento do professor que, por despreparo ou falta de capacitação adequada, agiu como se estivesse na escola regular, sem considerar o contexto hospitalar, muito diferente de um contexto de sala de aula regular. Palavras-chave: criança hospitalizada; classe hospitalar; interação professor-aluno.

Mental hospital experience, classroom instruction and change in conceptions and attitudes towards mental illness

Changes in conceptions and attitudes towards mental illness and the mentally ill were investigated in Israel. Questionnaires were presented to 69 student nurses, assessing stereotyped image, authoritarianism, social restrictiveness, benevolence, mental hygiene ideology and interpersonal aetiology before and after psychiatric affiliation in two kinds of mental hospitals, or before and after classroom instruction only. The findings lend cultural generality to previous observations and demonstrate that: (a) classroom instruction is ineffective as an agent of change; (b) practical experience involving personal confrontation with mental patients in a progressive psychiatric hospital, which contradicts the stereotyped image of mental patients and inculcates positive attitudes towards them, results in a change to a more professional scientific orientation and a more humane, accepting and liberal attitude; (c) under hospital conditions which support the stereotyped conception and authoritarian restrictive attitudes, the confrontation will result in preservation, even consolidation and strengthening, of the stereotyped image and undesirable attitudes towards mental patients. The findings were discussed and the implications for training programmes were drawn.

Establishing a token economy program in a state hospital classroom: A lesson in training student and teacher

The goals of this study were to establish a program in a state hospital classroom in order to: (A) increase appropriate study behavior; (B) increase the quantity and quality of work output; and (C) train the regular classroom teacher so that he could eventually administer the program on his own. A 4-day-a-week token economy program was set up for the teacher's most disruptive class. The program lasted 15 weeks and consisted of three treatment and two baseline phases. During each subsequent treatment phase, the delay between earning points and cashing the points in for backup reinforcers was increased. Students were observed and reinforced twice during each study period (and additionally reinforced after the study period during certain treatment phases). Reinforcers used to initiate and sustain desired behaviors consisted of social approval, points, toys, and candies. Extinction and time-out procedures were used in conjunction with positive reinforcement to reduce disruptive behaviors. Results indicate that appropriate study behavior and quantity of work output increased significantly in the reinforced treatment phases as compared to the baseline phases. However, the last treatment phase of the study is significantly lower in terms of quality of work output as compared to the other four phases. Problems encountered during the study, what factors may have accounted for the decrease in the quality of work output, and how a program of this type might be made even more effective are discussed.

Reality Problems in the Mental Hospital Classroom

Reality Problems in the Mental Hospital Classroom

Formação de professores na perspectiva inclusiva: uma ação pedagógica em classe Hospitalar no setor de pediatria do Hospital Universitário de Brasília

A formação de professores para a educação inclusiva implica o domínio de conhecimentos para atuar em diferentes situações escolares capazes de atender à diversidade humana. A classe hospitalar, modalidade de ensino da educação especial, presta atendimento pedagógico a crianças e adolescentes que se encontram hospitalizados. Este artigo tem como objetivo relatar a experiência de um trabalho desenvolvido no Estágio Supervisionado II, por meio de uma ação pedagógica em classe hospitalar, no Setor de Pediatria do Hospital Universitário de Brasília, durante três semestres consecutivos, no período de agosto de 2000 a abril de 2002.

Organizing for Instruction: School in a Hospital Classroom

The nature of the hospitalization process precludes a typical first day experience in most instances and, in reality, children arrive for their first day of hospital instruction at any time during the school year. However, this plan for the first day is a basic one and serves as a structure on which to build meaningful and integrated school days for children with varied backgrounds and diversified abilities. The crucial issue is the importance of planning, structure, and organization in a hospital school when both school and students are transposed to an alien social structure. Unless the teacher is aware of her own role, goals, and procedures, the educational needs of these exceptional children will not be easily realized.