Medical staff on film, play and children’s rights
The Impact of Film and Play on Children’s Hospital Experience
Healthcare professionals in our Croatian partner hospitals often remind us that treatment is only one part of a child’s hospital stay; children also have a right to play, learn, and take part in cultural life, as recognised in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Articles 28 and 31). One paediatric nurse summed up the impact of Film in Hospital like this: “When we screen a film, the ward suddenly feels less like a hospital and more like a living room – the children are not just patients, they are kids again.” This perspective opens the door to talking about children’s rights to culture and education during hospitalization and how our programme helps to fulfil them in everyday practice.
One of the highlighted activities this year was a workshop on children’s rights, where patients watched short films, talked about situations from their own lives, and then drew and coloured what “my protection and safeguards in hospital” mean to them. The results were shared as part of the European Week of Children’s Rights at the end of November, giving hospitalised children a visible voice in a wider European conversation.
Through Film in Hospital, Croatian medical staff witness how a simple film screening can turn a ward into a shared cultural space, where children learn, imagine, and participate together – even while undergoing treatment.
To deepen this perspective, we asked Croatian paediatric nurse Kristina Kužnik to share what Film in Hospital looks like from her daily work on the ward. Kristina’s hospital has been part of the project for 10 years, giving her a long-term view of how films and related activities can transform everyday life for hospitalised children:
“Film plays an extremely valuable role in the treatment and recovery process of children in the hospital, primarily as a form of emotional support, through the reduction of fear, stress and anxiety. At the time of screening and holding workshops, it distracts attention from pain, serves as distraction therapy during painful and uncomfortable procedures. It also provides children with the opportunity to express emotions, develop hope, courage and resilience. Films with positive messages that children can identify with strengthen their psychological stability. Showing films during workshops encourages children to socialize, laugh and be together, and thus makes children’s stay in the hospital easier. After actively participating in the workshop, children communicate more easily, are in a better mood, happier, smile more, and have an increased sense of security and trust in the hospital staff and environment. This form of support is also greatly appreciated and supported by the parents of patients.
The Film in the Hospital program, which has been operating at our Clinic for a number of years, is specific primarily in choosing topics suitable for children and adolescents in the hospital, choosing participants and authors of current topics that encourage children and adolescents to actively participate, express their thoughts and feelings, all for the purpose of faster recovery and empowerment so that they can return to everyday life and spend it like their peers.”
Kristina Kužnik, mag. med. Techn., University Hospital Centre “Sestre milosrdnice”, Department of Pediatrics, President, Croatian Nurses Association – Paediatric Nursing Society, Croatian representative in the Paediatric Nursing Associations of Europe
Photos from University Hospital Centre “Sestre milosrdnice”, Zagreb, Croatia
