Visting DMC Children's Hospital
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 11:01 am
So I have a friend that's a doctor (head of something or other) at Children's Hospital in Detroit to whom I recently proposed setting up some sort of "regular" troops for their patients. She put me in touch with their Child Life Projects Specialist to see what we could do. I've trooped the children's wing at Beaumont as well as at Children's and was expecting that we could set up something similar with a group of 5-8 troopers going room to room visiting whichever kids wanted us to come in. Those were some really rewarding events. I was hoping we could do this every month or two.
After speaking with their representative a little bit, she's suggested that they're not allowed to do what we've done in the past due to privacy laws and possibility of germs and such and proposed something else. She suggested we could bring in two or maybe two-plus-droid troopers to their common area and let the kids that want to come do a meet-and-greet. The visit would last maybe an hour--give or take. Not sure what time of day they would propose. If we're interested, we can work together to identify a date and time and she will get me a list of their requirements (can't talk to the kids about why they're there was one).
I admit I'm disappointed with that proposal. While I'm sure it's still rewarding to see the kids that show up, it seems like you're likely to miss kids that really want to come but aren't able for a variety of reasons. It also seems to lack a lot of the surprise and spontaneity that makes the room to room visit so fun for the kids (and their parents) and you won't get much time to visit/chat with anyone. I'd already asked a couple people if they would want to troop the hospital but this was before I'd heard the details from DMC. Now I'm unsure how much interest there may be with this new approach.
So I figured I'd throw it out there to everyone. Who's interested? If there's interest, I'll continue pushing forward with DMC. If I don't hear too much, I'll suggest to them that we may circle back to them at a later time. I understand it's all dependent on the date and time--I'm just looking for who likes the parameters for the visit.
After speaking with their representative a little bit, she's suggested that they're not allowed to do what we've done in the past due to privacy laws and possibility of germs and such and proposed something else. She suggested we could bring in two or maybe two-plus-droid troopers to their common area and let the kids that want to come do a meet-and-greet. The visit would last maybe an hour--give or take. Not sure what time of day they would propose. If we're interested, we can work together to identify a date and time and she will get me a list of their requirements (can't talk to the kids about why they're there was one).
I admit I'm disappointed with that proposal. While I'm sure it's still rewarding to see the kids that show up, it seems like you're likely to miss kids that really want to come but aren't able for a variety of reasons. It also seems to lack a lot of the surprise and spontaneity that makes the room to room visit so fun for the kids (and their parents) and you won't get much time to visit/chat with anyone. I'd already asked a couple people if they would want to troop the hospital but this was before I'd heard the details from DMC. Now I'm unsure how much interest there may be with this new approach.
So I figured I'd throw it out there to everyone. Who's interested? If there's interest, I'll continue pushing forward with DMC. If I don't hear too much, I'll suggest to them that we may circle back to them at a later time. I understand it's all dependent on the date and time--I'm just looking for who likes the parameters for the visit.